Box Score SAINT LEO - Florida Southern used a 21 point third quarter here Wednesday evening to turn a 34-30 halftime lead into 55-38 advantage heading into the final period and then held off a 35 point fourth quarter rally by Saint Leo to remain perfect on the season following an 82-73 Sunshine State Conference victory over the Lions at the Bowman Activities Center.
The victory helped the Moccasins, who are ranked 19th in this week's D2SIDA National Media Poll and earned votes in this week's USA Today Sports/WBCA Coaches' Poll, improve to 8-0 on the season and 3-0 in the SSC. Saint Leo fell to 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the SSC.
"I am really impressed that despite not playing well the past five games, we were able to go 5-0 on our road swing," Moccasin head coach Betsy Harris said. "This team has a lot of room to improve and that is a good thing."
Wednesday's game completed a stretch of five road games in 12 days for the Mocs, including completing the stretch with three games in five days.
While SLU scored 35 points in the fourth quarter, the Mocs were able to keep pace offensively as they scored 27 in the quarter, including a combined 20 points from sophomore guard Jensen Blassage (Cherry Valley, Ill.) and freshman guard Camille Giardina (Sarasota, Fla.). Blassage scored 11 of those points, while Giardina had nine of her career high 22 points in the quarter.
"Camille really did a great job and I was pleased with how she played in extended minutes tonight," said Harris, who is now 21-14 as the Mocs coach.
Giardina finished the game with a team high 34 minutes of action in the victory.
The Mocs scored 48 points in the second half of the game, but had stretches where they went without scoring.
"We have to find a way to get more consistent play on offense. We can't have those long stretches in games where we don't score," Harris said.
Along with 22 points from Giardina, Blassage, who was named this week's SSC Offensive Player of the Week, tallied 17 points and added seven assists. Blassage scored nine of those points at the foul line as she was 9-for-10 at the stripe in the game.
Senior forward Mariah Harris (Gainesville, Fla.) was the third Moc in double figures as she scored 15 points, including seven of FSC's 21 third quarter points and pulled fown a team high eight rebounds, inclduing collecting the 500th rebound of her career on a defensive board with 7:03 left in the game. Harris, who was named this week's SSC Defensive Player of the Week, is the 22nd Moccasin to record 500 career rebounds.
SLU has five players reach double figures in the loss as Izabell Skoogh had a team high 18 points, while Chelsy Springs added 15 points in the loss. The other Lions in double figures were Mary Redmond with 13, Jone' Akins had 11 and Chachi Guzman added 10.
The Mocs shot a season high 64 percent from the field and 62 percent from the 3-point line. SLU finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field and 32 percent from long distance.
SLU jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 11-8 when the Mocs closed the first quarter on an 8-5 run to tie the score at 16 following the opening 10 minutes. The run began with back-to-back treys from junior guard Flo Ward and Giardina and was capped by a bucket from freshman forward Abby Booth (Indialantic, Fla.).
The Lions would open the second quarter on a 10-6 run to lead 26-22 with 5:22 left in the quarter. FSC, though, would respond with a 9-0 run capped by a three-pointer from junior guard Bailey Florin (Orlando, Fla.) to take a 31-26 lead with 2:42 left in the second period. After a lay-up from Abby Peterson cut the Mocs lead to 31-28, the Mocs would score three of the period's final five points to take a 34-30 lead at the half.
Redmond and Guzman combined to score 14 of SLU's 30 first half points, while Giardina and Harris combined for 16 of FSC's 34 points in the opening half.
The Mocs were outrebounded 30-28 and committed 17 turnovers. SLU had 16 turnovers, but the Mocs were able to score 24 points off those turnovers.
Neither team was strong at the foul line as the Mocs shot 65 percent (20-for-31) and SLU shot 44 percent (7-for-16).
FSC will return to home to Jenkins Field House on Saturday, Dec. 5 as they host Florida Tech (5-2, 3-0 SSC) in a 5:30 p.m. SSC match-up. The Lady Panthers moved to 3-0 in the league following its 69-49 road win Wednesday at Eckerd.
"We have another tough game on Saturday, but at least we get to play it at home," the Moc coach added.
