Box Score LAKELAND - Second-ranked Florida Southern opened the Sunshine State Conference portion of its schedule here Saturday evening by suffering a 107-102 setback at the hands of 11th-ranked Barry in front of a season-high 887 fans at Jenkins Field House.
Saturday's game was a battle against the top teams in the Preseason SSC Poll as the Moccasins were tabbed to win the league title and the Buccaneers were picked to finish second.
After a game that saw nine ties, nine lead changes and eight players score in double figures it was Barry that ultimately prevailed by scoring 28 of the game's final 39 points after the Mocs held a 91-89 lead following a lay-up by senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) with 7:06 left in the game.
That would be the last time FSC (11-1 overall, 0-1 SSC), who came into the night as one of the remaining eight undefeated teams in Division II men's basketball, would hold the lead as the Bucs would score 11 straight points capped by a Tray Leonard lay-up with 4:45 left in the game to give Barry a 100-91 advantage.
"I give Barry credit. I thougt they outplayed us tonight," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following just the Mocs sixth home loss since the beginning of the 2012-13 season as FSC is now 39-6 at home over that span. "They (Barry) came in and played hard. I told our guys, you have to bring your hard hats when you play them as they are going to get the ball and bring it at you."
FSC, though, would respond with an 8-1 run capped by a lay-up from senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) to pull within 102-99 with 1:48 remaining in the game. He would miss the ensuing free throw after being fouled on the play and 41 seconds later Juan Ferrales would give the Bucs a 104-99 lead on a lay-up.
The Mocs would draw within two points following a trey by Battle with a minute remaining, but could get no closer as Anders Haas hit 1-of-2 free throws and would score on a lay-up with eight seconds to cap the scoring.
"I think our league is so balanced this year that right now I am predicting that five losses are going to win the league and seven or eight will finish eighth or ninth," added Darner.
Saturday's loss was the first time the Mocs had lost a game when scoring 100 points since suffering a 121-117 loss in double overtime on Jan. 2, 1982 at Long Island University. Since that loss, the Mocs had reeled off 83 consecutive victories when scoring 100 points. In addition, it is the first time the Mocs have allowed 100 points in a game since allowing 103 to Eckerd in a 104-103 double overtime win last season in St. Petersburg.
"Barry was the better team tonight and the better team won," the Mocs coach said.
Battle led the way for the Mocs with a career high 29 points, including scoring 17 of them after halftime. In addition to Battle, Capers finished the night with 22 points to move over 1,800 points in his career. Capers has now tallied 1,803 points in 106 career games as a Moccasin.
The third Moccasin with 20 points on the night was junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) as he finished with a career high 21 points, including going 5-for-10 from the 3-point line.
Barry, who improved to 9-1 overall and 2-0 in the SSC with the win, put five players in double figures led by Yunio Barrueta, who scored a team high 26 points and added 11 rebounds in the win. Barrueta scored 16 of his 26 points in the first half to help the Bucs take a 57-51 halftime lead.
In addition to Barrueta, Anders Haas added 18 points, while Deric Hill chipped in with 15 points, five rebounds and 12 assists. Ferrales added 13 points and five boards, while Leonard had 12 points off the bench for the Bucs, who snapped a seven-game losing skid in Lakeland with the victory. The Bucs hadn't won in Lakeland since collecting a 68-58 win over the Mocs on Feb. 10, 2007.
Darner said the one player that made the biggest difference in Saturday's game was the play of Hill.
"Hill was the key to the game. We couldn't contain him," said Darner. "He had 15 and 12 (assists) tonight and last year when they beat us at their place, he had 20 and 12. He can dominate the game and with the style they play, he's really effective."
Barry came into the game leading the league in field goal percentage and was third in 3-point field goal percentage and they didn't anything tonight to hurt those rankings as they shot 54 percent from the field for the game and connected on 50 percent (10-for-20) of its 3-point shots.
"We told our guys that we have to do a good job of getting out on them," said Darner, who fell to 4-5 all-time in SSC openers as the Mocs coach. "They've got some really good players and when you have good players, good players make shots and tonight they made their shots."
The Mocs finished the game shooting 42.5 percent from the floor and 38.2 percent from the 3-point line.
FSC jumped out to an early 15-8 lead in the first five minutes of the game and led 27-23 when Barry used a 15-7 run capped by a jumper from Leonard to push out to a 38-34 lead with 5:40 left in the opening half.
After back-to-back lay-ups from Capers and Battle tied the game at 38, the Bucs answered with a 12-7 run highlighted by two triples from Arie Williams to push out to a 50-45 edge with 2:32 left in the half. The Mocs, though, would score the next six points to take a 51-50 lead following a lay-up from senior forward Daniel Turner (McCordsville, Ind.).
Barry would respond by scoring the final seven points of the half to go into the locker room at the half holding a 57-51 lead. The six-point halftime deficit by the Mocs was its largest of the season.
In the first half, Barry shot 56 percent from the field and was 7-for-10 (70 percent) from the 3-point line.
The Bucs would extend its lead to as much as nine points in the opening three minutes of the second half as they scored eight of the half's first 13 points.
FSC would respond with a 12-6 run over the next three-plus minutes to pull within 71-68 following a three-pointer by Travis. The Bucs would quickly answer with a 12-7 run to extend its lead to 83-75 with 10:59 left in the game.
The Mocs wouldn't go away as they used an 11-3 run that begun with back-to-back treys from senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) and Turner and was capped by two Battle free throws to take an 86-84 lead with 8:31 left in the game.
Both teams would then take turns holding the lead until Battle's lay-up with 7:06 left in the game gave the Mocs their final lead of the game at 91-89.
Barry held a 52-41 edge on the glass, but the Mocs forced the Bucs into 17 turnovers on the night. FSC entered the game as the No. 2 team in Division II in turnover margin (+10.4) as they finished the night with 12 turnovers.
The Mocs, though, were only able to score 17 points off those turnovers as they came into the game averaging nearly 28.9 points per game off turnovers on the season.
FSC will look to begin a new win streak this coming Wednesday, Jan. 7 as they hit the road for the first time in SSC play with a 7:30 p.m. game at Saint Leo (9-4, 1-1 SSC). The Lions picked up their first SSC win of the season on Saturday by earning a 69-64 home win over Florida Tech.
"We'll get beat on Wednesday if we continue to play on offense the way we're playing," Darner said when asked about Wednesday's game at Saint Leo. "You can't just stand and go one-on-one instead of passing and moving. If we don't pass the ball against Saint Leo, we'll score 35 points and get beat by 20."
