Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern continued its mastery on its home court here Tuesday evening as the Moccasins jumped out to a 49-28 halftime lead and never looked back in posting a 94-67 non-conference victory over Puerto Rico-Bayamon at Jenkins Field House.
The Moccasins, who improved to 3-2 on the season and extended its win streak to three straight games since opening the 2015-16 campaign with two straight losses, used a 30-6 run over a span of 11 minutes spread over two halves to turn a 33-25 lead into a 63-31 advantage just a little over four minutes into the second half. FSC closed the first half on a 16-3 run to take its 49-28 halftime lead and opened the second half on a 14-3 run to push out to a 32 point lead.
From that point, the Mocs would cruise as the Vaqueros, who were playing their second game in as many nights against a Sunshine State Conference opponent as they suffered a 105-72 loss on Monday at Rollins, would close the game on a 36-31 to cut the final margin to 27 points.
"It is always a tough game the (one) before Thanksgiving, no matter who you play, because you always fear the guys have one foot out the door ready to get home and spend time with their families," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said. "We talked a lot about that yesterday and I thought we had a great practice yesterday and they came in today, for the most part, pretty focused. It's always good to get a win."
Tuesday's win not only extended FSC's home court win streak to 13 straight games dating to last season, it was also FSC's 23rd consecutive regular season win at home against a non-conference opponent since falling 91-89 on a half-court buzzer beating shot by St. Cloud State on Nov. 23, 2012.
"Our guys' confidence is continuing to get better and our team continues to improve each day," said Donnelly, who is now 198-154 in his 13th season as a collegiate coach. "We are not a finished product by any means and are still a work in progress. Our guys should be excited because we're starting to do some good things."
Tuesday's victory was aided by a season high tying 16 points off the bench from junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa.). In addition to Zablotny, three other Mocs scored in double figures as senior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) tallied 15 points and four assists, while senior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) and redshirt sophomore forward Stephen Turner (McCordsville, Ind.) each had 10 points and combined for 11 rebounds and Turner matched his career with six board and Travis pulled down five. For Turner, the 10 points established a new career high.
In addition to putting four players in double figures, three other Mocs finished the night with nine points as freshman forward Jarel Spellman(Richmond, Va.) had nine points and six boards, while junior guard Trey Moore (Omaha, Neb.) also had nine points and sophomore forward Tyler Ross (St. John, Ind.) had nine points and five rebounds in the win. In fact, all 13 Mocs that suited up saw action in Tuesday's game and 12 of those 13 players scored at least a point.
"It was nice that we got everyone a chance to play tonight," the Moccasin coach said.
One of those players that stepped up was sophomore forward R.J. June (Sanford, Fla.) as he played 11 minutes and in those 11 minutes, he scored a season high five points and pulled down seven boards, including five offensive boards. June who battled injuries early in the season, made his season debut this past Saturday at Lynn.
The game was close in the opening six minutes until the Vaqueros took a 20-19 lead on a 3-pointer by Nathaniel Martinez. That would be UPRB's only lead of the night as the Mocs answered with a 12-0 lead aided by consecutive treys from Moore and Zablotny and capped by a jumper from Travis, who was named the USBWA Division II National Player of the Week earlier in the day on Tuesday, to take a 31-20 lead with 9:44 left in the opening half.
After UPRB used a 5-2 run to pull within 33-25, the Mocs would begin its first half closing run on a lay-up by Zablotny and capped the run with a jumper from Williams with 1:23 left.
In the second half, the Vaqueros scored the first basket of the half and then the Mocs used a 14-1 run to push its lead to 63-31 with 15:53 left in the game. UPRB would answer with an 11-4 to drop the Mocs lead to 67-42 with 12:07 remaining.
The Mocs, though, would respond with a 21-14 run over the next eight minutes to push its lead back out 32 points at 88-56 with 4:07 left in the game. The run was keyed by six points from Turner and five points from June.
After the Vaqueros would score eight consecutive points to pull within 88-64 with 2:13 left in the game, the Mocs would then score six of the final nine points, including capping the scoring on a lay-up with 24 seconds left from sophomore guard Luke St. Lifer (Mountain Lakes, N.J.), who was playing his first-ever collegiate game. St. Lifer's lay-up came six seconds after he collected his first ever rebound, which was an offensive board off a missed 3-pointer from June. St. Lifer, who spent his freshman year last season as a student manager for the Moccasins, earned a spot on the team during walk-on tryouts during the fall.
In the first half, the Mocs shot 52 percent from the field and 46 percent from the 3-point line and forced UPRB into eight turnovers that led to 11 points and held a 11-0 edge in second chance points.
For the game, FSC finished shooting 48 percent from the field, but was just 33 percent (6-for-18) from the 3-point line, including going 0-for-5 from downtown in the second half. FSC was also strong at the foul line as they were 26-for-32 (81.3 percent), including going 9-for-10 at the line in the opening half.
Johnatan Roman led the way for the Vaqueros (0-2) with 15 points, including scoring 13 of them in the second half, while Nathaniel Martinez added 10 points in the loss. FSC finished the game with a 50-29 edge on the glass and had a 25-4 advantage in second chance points. The Mocs bench also 49 of its 94 points.
UPRB shot 41 percent from the field and 29 percent from the 3-point line in the game and committed 17 turnovers and had 18 assists on 26 made baskets. The Mocs had 16 turnovers and dished out 16 assists on 31 made baskets.
The Mocs will now take a couple of days off for Thanksgiving before returning to practice on Friday to begin preparations for its non-conference road game on Sunday, Nov. 29 at USC Aiken. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m. at the Convocation Center on the USC Aiken campus.
"We're going to have two days to get ready to go play a really good USC Aiken team once we come back to campus on Friday," said Donnelly.
