Box Score LAKELAND – The Florida Southern women's basketball came out victorious over Barry University, 70-67, in Saturday's Sunshine State Conference opener at Jenkins Field House.
The Moccasins, now 7-3 on the season and 1-0 inside the SSC, have already equaled last season's win total and Betsy Harris joins Norm Benn – the program's all-time winningest coach – as only the second head coach to win both their FSC debut and first SSC game.
"I'm just glad to get out of here (with the win)," Harris said. "The first conference game for me was a little nerve-wrecking because I wasn't too sure on how the girls were going to respond. It was our first conference game, and this conference is tough. It's really tough. There are no easy games from here on out."
The Mocs led by as much as 17 points in the second half, but saw their cushion slowly fade as Barry's Jackie Perez found her touch from beyond the arc. The Buccaneers (8-4, 1-1) entered the contest ranked second in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage and third in 3-pointers per game, and individually, Perez ranked second in the SSC in 3-pointers with an average of 2.7 per game. She scored all 16 of her points in the second half, going 4-for-5 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes.
Harris compared tonight's performance to her team's loss at Georgia Southwestern on Nov. 22. On that night the Mocs spoiled a 12-point lead in the second half, but appeared to have learned from the mistakes they made en route to the win on Saturday.
"I told them (the team) that you've got to learn how to win," Harris said. "When you're ahead, you've got to be able to pull it out. Tonight we were able to pull it out."
"I think this year we learned to compose ourselves," said senior guard Cashala Thompson. "We just all told each other to remain calm and we knew that we had this game, this was going to be our game and they weren't going to take it away from us."
Thompson (Tucson, Ariz.) went 2-for-2 from 3-point range in the second half, her latter countering Perez's first trey to make it 53-39 Florida Southern with just under 10 minutes to play.
Junior forward Mariah Harris (Gainesville, Fla.) nailed a free throw, followed by a jumper from junior guard Ali Sanders (Sleepy Hollow, Ill.), to make a 16-point game at 55-39. Mariah Harris then gave the Mocs a pair of 17 point leads at 57-40 with 9:00 left in regulation and 59-42 with 8:18 remaining.
Sophomore guard Morgan Siebka (Slippery Rock, Pa.) hit a trey as the shot clock expired to make the score 62-48 in favor of the Mocs with just over six minutes remaining.
From there, Perez and the Bucs closed the gap. The junior from Miami, Fla., scored 11 of her team's 19 points, nine of them on treys. Her last 3-pointer made it a three-point game at 68-65 with 19 seconds left. Perez was then forced to foul FSC junior guard Sydni Payne (Conyers, Ga.), who made both of her ensuing free throws to seal the win.
The Mocs only trailed for the first 1:24 after Barry guard Ashley Lutz scored the first basket of the contest. FSC led 34-26 at the half. Sophomore forward Gianna Vastola (Sarasota, Fla.) scored 10 of her team-high 14 points in the first half. Thompson scored 12 points off of four 3-pointers. As a team, FSC out-rebounded Barry by 13, 43-30, for the largest rebound margin it has recorded this season.
Up next for the Mocs is a road trip to Saint Leo as they take on the Lions at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7. On Saturday, Jan. 10, FSC will visit Nova Southeastern for a 2:00 p.m. contest.
