WEST PALM BEACH - Despite a combined 76 points from the Florida Southern threesome of Dylan Travis, Michael Volovic and Dominique Williams, the reigning Division II National Champion Moccasins suffered a 99-96 overtime setback here Saturday against Palm Beach Atlantic in a non-conference South Region contest at Rubin Arena.

In the game, Travis, who is a senior guard from Omaha, Neb., tallied 29 points, while Volovic, who is a junior guard from Carmel, Ind., scored a career high 27 points and Williams, a senior guard from Haines City, Fla., added 20 points, but those three players couldn't help the Mocs from suffering its fourth consecutive loss and drop its overall record to 4-6 on the season. 

"Once again, late in the game, we have a nine point lead with a little under two minutes left in regulation, but we couldn't hold the lead," Moccasin first year coach Mike Donnelly said. "I don't want to take anything away from Palm Beach Atlantic, but this is who we are at this time and it is something we have to fix it and fix it quickly."

It is the first time since the 2006-07 season that the Mocs have lost four straight games and that season, the Mocs lost nine straight games en route to finishing the year with an 8-20 overall record. 

In regulation, Travis gave the Mocs an 83-74 lead following his basket right before the shot clock expired with 1:52 left in the game, but back-to-back treys from Milos Kostic and Michael Simpson pushed the Sailfish within three at 83-80 with 58.7 seconds left in the second half. PBA (5-5 overall) would push within two points at 83-81 following a free throw by Malek Barber.

On the ensuing in-bounds play, junior guard Trey Moore (Omaha, Neb.) threw the ball to Simpson and Bakari Warthen would tie the game on a dunk 13 seconds left in the game. Volovic's three right before the buzzer was short to force overtime.

"We didn't play very well today, especially down the stretch," the Mocs coach said. "Our defense continues to cause us trouble. We allowed 99 points again today for the third consecutive game, that is not how were supposed to play."

The 99 points scored by PBA marked the third straight game that the Moccasin defense has allowed a team to score 99 points and the fourth straight game FSC has allowed an opponent to score 90 points.

After PBA's Shavanno Cooper opened overtime with a dunk to give the Sailfish an 85-83 lead just 25 seconds into the extra session. The Mocs, though, would score five straight points to take an 88-85 lead with 3:39 remaining. 

Simpson would tie the game at 88 on a trey with 3:18 remaining and after Williams gave the Mocs a 91-88 lead following a 3-pointer. PBA would answer Williams' trey by using consecutive treys from Derick Yepes and Simpson to take a 94-91 lead with 2:17 left.

The Sailfish would increase its lead to 96-91 on a tip-in by Lucas Morales with 1:14 remaining, but the Mocs would pull within two at 96-94 following a trey by Travis with 59 seconds left. Barber would push PBA's lead to 98-94 on a lay-up with 49 seconds left and then Volovic brought the Mocs back within two on a lay-up with 30 seconds remaining. It was Volovic's first game back since Delta State as he had missed the last seven games due to injury.

"It was nice to have Michael back out on the floor today. He just brings a presence and leadership to our team," said Donnelly, who is still stuck on 199 career coaching victories.

After Barber hit 1-of-2 free throws with 19 seconds left to give the Sailfish a 99-96 lead, the Mocs had one more chance to tie the game but Travis' 3-point attempt with three seconds left fell short.

Saturday's game was a battle of 3-point shots as the two teams combined to shoot 82 treys in the game as the Mocs shot a school record 46 3-pointers and tied a season high with 14 makes, while PBA hit on just 10 of its 36 3-pointers. The 46 3-point shot attempts bettered FSC's old mark of 43 set against Rollins on Jan. 31, 2009. In that game against Rollins, the Mocs hit a school record 22 3-point shots.

"We took way too many 3-point shots today," the Mocs coach added.

For the game, the Mocs shot 41 percent from the field and 30 percent from the 3-point line, while PBA shot 43 percent from the floor and 28 percent from the 3-point line. 

Simpson led the way for the Sailfish with 21 points, while Kostic had 16 points, Cooper added 15 and Warthen finished with 14. Two other Sailfish scored in double figures as Barber had 12 and Morales chipped with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Leading 45-42 at the half, the Sailfish opened the second half on a 15-9 run to take a 60-51 lead, but the Mocs would answer with an 11-2 run capped by a tip-in from sophomore Tyler Ross (St. John, Ind.) to tie the game at 62 with 13:06 left. 

After the Sailfish scored seven points that were aided by three straight Moccasin turnovers and capped by a Simpson trey to take a 69-62 lead with 11:23 remaining in regulation, the Mocs would use a 19-2 run to an 81-71 lead with 3:54 left in the game. The run was keyed by a combined 17 points from Travis and Volovic as Volovic had 10 and Travis scored seven. 

In the first half, PBA took a 31-21 lead just a little over 10 minutes into the game, before the Mocs responded with a 7-0 run capped by a lay-up and free throw from Travis to complete a 3-point play to pull the Mocs within 31-28 with 8:45 left in the opening half.

The Sailfish, though, would score seven of the next eight points to take a 38-28 lead, before the Mocs answered with a 10-3 run capped by a tip-in from freshman forward Jarel Spellman (Richmond, Va.) to drop PBA's lead to 41-38. 

PBA would outscore the Mocs, 5-4 over the final two minutes of the first half to take a 45-42 lead at the half.

One of the biggest differences in the game was points off turnovers in the second half as PBA scored 16 points off of FSC's 12 second half turnovers. For the game, the Mocs had 18 turnovers and PBA finished with 12. PBA held a 20-18 edge in points off turnovers for the game, but had a 16-9 edge after halftime. 

The Mocs held a 50-48 edge on the boards as Travis finished with 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season, while Spellman had eight boards and blocked four shots in the loss. 

FSC will look to rebound this coming Thursday, Dec. 17 as they return home to Jenkins Field House to host Eastern New Mexico (3-5) in a 7:30 p.m. non-conference game. It will mark the first of three games in four days for the Mocs to close out the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule.