Box Score LAKELAND – Florida Southern gave No. 16 Florida Tech a run for its money but the undefeated Panthers pulled away with a strong finish in their 80-60 victory Saturday at Jenkins Field House.
The Moccasins (8-6, 2-3 SSC) led for most of the first half and trailed by a few as four points midway through the second half. The Panthers (15-0, 5-0 SSC) assembled a 31-15 run in the final 9:30 to widen the margin to 20 points.
"We hung in with the No. 16 team in the country for what, 32 minutes?" said head coach Betsy Harris. "We forgot there were eight more minutes left in the game. We've got to learn to finish."
FIT senior Kayk Wilson, the Sunshine State Conference's leading scorer, heated up in the second half and netted 11 of her team's final 25 points. Wilson scored 13 of her team-high 19 points in the final 10 minutes. Senior forward Jasmire Brown also had a big second half, scoring 14 of her 16 points.
As a team, Florida Tech shot 50.0 percent (20-for-40) in the second half.
Junior forward Mariah Harris has put together some of the best performances of her career against the Panthers and Saturday was no different. She paced all scorers with 21 points, having earned her first start of the season after leading the Mocs with 19 on Wednesday against Eckerd. The Gainesville, Fla., native went 9-for-12 from the floor and pulled down a season-best nine rebounds.
Sophomore forward Christin Strawbridge (Lakeland, Fla.) was a point away from a double-double, scoring nine to go along with a game-high 11 rebounds.
Turnovers plagued the Moccasin offense all night. They coughed the ball up 23 times and surrendered a season-worst 32 points off of those turnovers.
"They're doing some things that we want them to do, they just have to be more consistent," said the first-year head coach.
The 3-point shot helped the Mocs pull ahead in the first few minutes of the opening half. Senior guard Cashala Thompson (Tucson, Ariz.) hit the Mocs' first trey at 18:43 to give the home team a 5-3 lead. Senior guard Syerra Davis (Tolleson, Ariz.) made it 10-6 approximately four minutes in and Thompson hit her second 3-pointer just over a minute later to extend the cushion to five points at 15-10. However, that was the last 3-pointer the Mocs would make for the remainder of the contest.
Thompson is now in sole possession of seventh place on the program's all-time list for career 3-pointers with 94. She needs one more to tie Stacey Ungashick (1989-93) for sixth place.
Sophomore forward Gianna Vastola (Sarasota, Fla.) hit a pair of free throws to give the Mocs a 17-10 lead at 14:16, tied for their largest of the game. Mariah Harris buried a layup with 7:41 left before the half to give Florida Southern another seven-point advantage at 24-17.
The Panthers closed the first half on a 14-5 run and took the lead into the locker room at the break. They netted eight consecutive points to turn a 27-23 deficit into a 31-27 lead. Wilson began the run with one of her four 3-pointers.
Freshman guard Jensen Blassage (Rockford, Ill.) scored the last bucket of the first half and the Mocs trailed by two, 31-29.
The Mocs limited Florida Tech's high-scoring duo of Brown and Wilson to a combined eight points off of 2-for-11 (18.2 percent) shooting as part of their resilient first half.
Vastola tied the game at 31 to start the second half, but the Panthers led the rest of the way.
The Mocs will look to end their losing streak at three games when they visit SSC rival Tampa (10-5, 3-2 SSC) on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 5:30 p.m.
