Box Score BOCA RATON - Florida Southern scored 20 or more points in the first three quarters here Saturday en route to posting a 77-61 road win in Sunshine State Conference play over Lynn at the deHoernle Center on the Lynn University campus.
The victory helped the Moccasins improve to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the SSC on the season, while Lynn fell to 0-3 and 0-2 in the SSC. The 4-0 start to the season is the first since the Mocs opened the 2011-12 season by winning its first six games.
"Walking into the locker room today, you wouldn't have known we won the game by 16 points. The girls were disappointed with how they played," Moccasin head coach Betsy Harris said following her 17th win as the Mocs coach. "We need to play better, but we're happy to be 4-0."
FSC's victory was aided by a season high 17 points from senior forward Mariah Harris (Gainesville, Fla.).
"Mariah really had that look in her eyes today that she was ready to play. She really wanted to play well against Lynn's No. 33 (Charla Nelson-James)," said Harris.
In addition to Harris, two other Mocs finished in double figures as senior guard Sydni Payne (Conyers, Ga.) tallied 13 points, four assists and four steals, while freshman guard Camille Giardina (Sarasota, Fla.) had a career high 11 points and five boards off the bench. FSC's bench outscored Lynn's bench, 30-15.
Junior forward Gianna Vastola (Sarasota, Fla.) added nine points and freshman forward Anja Fuchs-Robetin (Vienna, Austria) had seven points in the win.
One area that Harris was not pleased with was her team's ability to hang on to the basketball as they committed a season high 24 turnovers. Despite those turnovers, Lynn was only able to score 15 points off those turnovers.
"We definitely need to do a better job at taking care of the ball. We had too many turnovers and that could be costly as the season progresses," the Mocs coach added.
While FSC committed 24 turnovers, Lynn did them one better as they had 25 in the game as the Mocs scored 25 points off those turnovers, including 15 points off 15 Fighting Knight turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.
The Mocs scored eight straight points after Lynn's Tiffani Kerrison scored the game's first basket just 41 seconds into the opening quarter. After LU used an 8-2 run to tie the quarter at 10, the Mocs would score 10 of the next 15 points to take a 20-15 lead with 40 seconds left. The run was capped by back-to-back baskets from Giardina and Payne. FSC led 20-16 after one quarter.
After Lynn scored the first two points of the second quarter on a lay-up by Maddie Herr, the Mocs would score 18 of the next 24 points in the quarter to take a 38-24 lead with 51 seconds left. LU would stop FSC's run with two free throws by Shaunt'e Tucker to pull within 38-26, before junior guard Bailey Florin (Orlando, Fla.) hit a bucket right before the buzzer to give the Mocs a 40-26 lead at the half. Vastola and senior guard Shaquita Snow (Racine, Wis.) each scored points in the quarter.
Lynn would open the third quarter by scoring nine of the first 11 points to pull within 44-33. After Fuchs-Robetin gave the Mocs a 46-33 lead with 4:56 left in the quarter, the Fighting Knights used an 8-6 run capped by a Kerrison lay-up to drop FSC's lead to 52-41 with 2:41 remaining. Kerrison's bucket would help ignite the Mocs as they closed the half by scoring the final nine points, including five points from Giardina, to take a 61-41 lead after three quarters.
The only quarter in which FSC was outscored came in the fourth as Lynn won the quarter 20-16 to drop FSC's final margin to 16 points. Herr scored five of Lynn's 20 points in the quarter and had 13 for the game.
Florida Southern finished the game shooting 46 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line in the win. FSC shot 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from long distance in the first half.
Along with Herr's 13 points, Kerrison led the Fighting Knights with 16 points and added six boards, but committed six turnovers. Charla Nelson-James and Zachara Bailey each had nine points in the loss.
The Mocs also finished the contest with a 42-35 edge on the glass, including sophomore guard Jensen Blassage (Cherry Valley, Ill.) pulling down eight boards.
FSC will continue its five-game road swing with a 5:30 p.m. non-conference match-up in West Palm Beach on Tuesday, Nov. 24 against Palm Beach Atlantic.
