Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern played as a No. 1 ranked team for the first time in 15 years here Wednesday evening as the Moccasins collected a 70-56 victory over Saint Leo in Sunshine State Conference action at Jenkins Field House.
Prior to Wednesday's game, the last time the Mocs took the court as the No. 1 ranked team in Division II was on Jan. 6, 2001. The Mocs have been ranked No. 1 for a total of 18 weeks, which is the tied for seventh most weeks at No. 1 in D-II history.
"I don't think it's anything different whether you're No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3. You're Florida Southern and everyone wants to beat you, you're everybody's biggest game in this conference," said Moccasin coach Linc Darner when asked about his team playing as the No. 1 team in the nation on Wednesday night. "I don't think anybody is going to be more fired up to play us because we're No. 1, and I don't think our guys should look at it any different. It's another game and we're always going to get everybody's best shot."
With the victory, the Mocs extended its win streak to 11 consecutive games and improved its record to 22-1 overall and 10-1 in the SSC. Saint Leo fell to 12-12 overall and 4-8 in the SSC.
In addition to winning its 11 consecutive game, which is tied for the second longest active win streak in Division II, the Mocs also swept the season series against the Lions for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
In Wednesday's game, the Mocs, who were held to a season low 70 points, used a 12-3 run over a span of five minutes in the first half to turn a 13-9 lead into a 25-12 advantage.
The Lions, who have now dropped five of its last six games overall, would answer with an 11-6 run to pull within 31-23 following two Edmunds Dukulis free throws.
Senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickingerton, Ohio) would hit back-to-back treys sandwiched around a Dukulis lay-up to help the Mocs take a 37-25 lead at the half.
"Those two threes by T.K. to us up double digits at the half were big because I didn't think we played very well in the first half," said Darner, who won his 204th game as the Mocs coach. "I thought we guarded decent in the first half, not great. I thought we guarded better in the second half."
Kelly was one of three Mocs to finish in double figures on the night as he scored a game-high 17 points, including tallying 14 in the first half. In addition to Kelly, senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) tallied 15 points to extend his double figure scoring streak to 10 consecutive games and junior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) added 10 points and five boards off the bench as the Mocs bench outscored SLU's bench, 21-17 for the game.
"We didn't play very well at all tonight and we'll need to come out Saturday and be ready to play," Kelly said following the game.
The Mocs opened the second half on a 13-7 run to push out to a 50-32 lead following a three-pointer from sophomore guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.). In fact, Volovic's trey capped a 5-0 run by the Mocs.
SLU would respond with a 7-3 run over the next three-plus minutes to drop the Mocs lead to 53-39 with 9:50 remaining in the game.
FSC's lead would grow to as much as 20 points following two free throws by senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) with 4:55 left in the game. Battle's two free throws gave the Mocs a 64-44 lead and capped an 11-5 run.
The Lions would close the game by scoring 12 of the final 18 points, including pulling within 10 points at 66-56 following a three-pointer from Trey Griseck with 56 seconds left in the game.
On the night, the Mocs held SLU to 37 percent shooting from the field and 27 percent (4-for-15) shooting from the 3-point line. The Mocs lead the SSC in 3-point field percentage defense coming into Wednesday's game as their opponents were only shooting 32.1 percent from long distance.
"Teams have a hard time making three's against us. We are the best 3-point guarding team in the league," Darner said when asked about his team's defense. "There is a misconception a lot of times because we score a lot of points that we are a bad defensive team, and that's what a lot of people say about us, but in reality, I think we can really guard when we want to.
"I think here lately we've been doing a good job at guarding."
It marked the third time in the last four games that FSC's opponents had shot under 40 percent from the field. In addition, the Mocs have held their last 11 opponents to under 39 percent shooting from the 3-point line, including limiting its last three foes to under 30 percent shooting from downtown.
Dukulis and Devin Crisosto each scored 10 points in the loss for the Lions, while Ron Foxx added nine points and five boards before fouling out. Foxx entered the game as the No. 5 scorer in the SSC as he was averaging nearly 16 points per game.
The Mocs forced SLU into 15 turnovers and were outrebounded, 37-36. FSC committed nine turnovers, including just two in the second half and collected eight steals in the win.
FSC will look to keep its winning ways going this coming Saturday, Feb. 14 as they travel to Melbourne to face Florida Tech (13-10 overall, 3-8 SSC) in a 4 p.m. game at the Clemente Center. The Mocs earned a 109-96 win over the Panthers in thier first meeting this season in Lakeland on Jan. 17.
