Box Score SAINT LEO - Florida Southern hit the road for the first time in Sunshine State Conference action here Wednesday evening by closing its game with Saint Leo on a 27-12 run to collect a 71-66 come-from-behind victory over the Lions at the Marion Bowman Activities Center on the SLU campus.
With the victory, the seventh-ranked Moccasins improved to 12-1 overall on the season and avoided its first 0-2 start in SSC play since the 2006-07 season. SLU fell to 9-5 overall and 1-2 in the SSC with the setback.
"I give our guys a lot of credit. We weren't very good tonight," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following just his team's fourth win over the Lions since the beginning of the 2011-12 season. "I think we had some hangover from our loss to Barry last weekend, but once we got down and Dylan (Travis) had a couple of steals and baskets and we got back in the game, I thought we just forgot about it (the loss to Barry) and played."
The Mocs, who trailed 54-44 with 11:16 left in the game following two free throws by Trey Griseck, used an 11-0 run over a two-plus minute span to take a 55-54 lead after a 3-pointer from senior guard Tyler Logan (Landover, Md.) with 8:24 left in the game. Logan finished with seven points on the night.
Following a turnover by Ron Foxx on the ensuing SLU possession, Moccasin senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) gave the Mocs 58-54 lead following a trey with 7:46 left. The Lions, though, would use an 8-4 run over the next three-plus minutes to tie the game at 62 following a lay-up by Edmunds Dukulis.
That would be the sixth and final tie of the game as Battle hit two free throws with 3:28 left and 34 seconds later, Moccasin senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) hit 1-of-2 free throws to give FSC a 65-62 lead with 2:54 remaining.
After Cale Girten pushed the Lions within a point at 65-64 following his jumper in the paint with 1:37 left, Capers would connect on his only field goal of the game with 55 seconds remaining to push the Mocs lead out to 67-64. Capers finished the night 1-for-9 from the field, but hit 4-of-6 from the free throw line as he scored a season low tying six points.
"I thought down the stretch we had some big stops on defense and we were able to hit some baskets here and there," said Darner, whose team improved to 87-17 all-time against Saint Leo. "Kevin is 0-for-8 from the field and he hits a big baseline jumper in the final minute to help us extend our lead."
The Mocs would seal the victory by hitting four free throws in the final 17 seconds to earn the victory and improve to 3-0 away from home on the season.
Junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) led the way for the Mocs with 18 points, including scoring 14 points in the first half to help the Mocs claw back from an 11-point deficit to take a 36-32 lead at the half. Along with his 18 points, Travis collected a career-high seven steals, including six in the first half.
In addition to Travis, Battle finished the night with 13 points and sophomore guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) had 10 points off the bench as the Mocs bench outscored SLU, 36-14 for the game.
FSC's win was aided by its ability to force turnovers as the Mocs defense forced the Lions into 30 turnovers that led to 34 of FSC's 71 points. In the second half, the Lions committed 16 turnovers and the Mocs were able to score 22 of their 35 second half points off turnovers.
"We got them to turn it a lot more than I thought and that was a key to the game," added Darner, whose team was held to a season low 71 points.
The Mocs came into the game leading the SSC and was third nationally in scoring as they were averaging 96.8 points per game and had scored 80 or more points in its first 12 games this year.
While SLU committed 30 turnovers, the Mocs finished the game with just 12 turnovers, including just four in the second half.
Those points off turnovers proved to be the difference in the game and were necessary on a night when the Mocs shot just 39 percent (24-for-62) from the field and hit just four of its 24 3-point attempts (16.7 percent).
"For some reason against Saint Leo, they do this to us. They make us look awful on offense," the Mocs coach said. "We shoot our typical 38 percent against them, but we found a way to win."
SLU came into the game leading the SSC in scoring defense (60.2), field goal percentage defense (41.0 percent) and 3-point field goal percentage defense (32.6 percent). In addition, they also had allowed only two teams to score over 70 points on the season and had held its previous eight opponents to less than 65 points.
In the first half, the Mocs trailed by as much as 12 points in the first 13 minutes of the game before closing out the half on a 16-1 run keyed by Travis' 10 points to go into halftime with its four point lead.
The Lions, who had its five game win streak snapped with the loss, jumped out to a 17-10 lead just eight minutes into the game as they took advantage of five Moccasin turnovers that led to nine of those 17 points.
SLU's lead increased to as much as 10 points at 24-14 following a lay-up from Devin Crisosto with 8:38 left in the half. The Lions, who shot 51 percent from the field and 38 percent from the 3-point line on the night, opened the game hiting nine of its first 16 shots, while FSC connected on six of their first 19 shots.
After Taylor Bassett drilled a 3-pointer with 5:16 left to give the Lions a 31-20 lead, the Mocs answered with an 8-0 run to pull within 31-28 following a lay-up from Logan. After a free throw by Crisosto gave SLU a 32-28 lead, the Mocs would score the final eight points of the half with six of those points coming from Travis and the other basket coming on a lay-up from senior forward Daniel Turner (McCordsville, Ind.). Turner finished the night with four points and a game-high five rebounds.
The Mocs were outrebounded 37-27 and outshot at the free throw line on the night as SLU shot 84 percent (16-for-19) at the line, while FSC was 19-for-24 (79 percent) from the charity stripe.
Crisosto led the way for the Lions with 13 points, while Foxx and Dukulis each tallied 12 points in the loss and Dukulis added nine boards for SLU.
FSC will continue its two-game road swing in SSC play as they travel to Davie for a 4 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 10 against Nova Southeastern (5-6 overall, 1-2 SSC), who suffered an 82-64 road loss on Wednesday at Lynn.
