Box Score ST. PETERSBURG – Florida Southern's second-half rally came up short as the Moccasins dropped a Sunshine State Conference road tilt to the Eckerd Tritons, 73-65, Wednesday night.
Eckerd (19-6, 9-5 SSC) led by 15 points, 61-46, with 7:35 to go in the second half, but the Mocs (11-12, 5-8 SSC) went on a 13-2 run over the next four minutes to reduce the deficit to four points.
Senior guard Syerra Davis (Tolleson, Ariz.) spurred the run with a jumper, followed by a steal on the ensuing Triton possession, which led to a Cashala Thompson (Tucson, Ariz.) 3-pointer to pull within 10, 61-51, at 6:51.
Davis forced another turnover, resulting in a Sydni Payne (Conyers, Ga.) spot jumper at 63-54. Less than two minutes later, Thompson sunk her 112th career trey to pull the Mocs within four at 63-59.
Eckerd senior guard Rana Thomas, the second-leading scorer in the SSC, drained her fifth 3-point field goal of the night to deflate the Moccasin momentum. The Tritons made seven of their eight free throws in the final minutes of the game to secure the win. Overall in the second half, Eckerd was 17-for-20 from the foul line.
"I am proud of my girls because they keep on fighting," said head coach Betsy Harris.
"I told them, 'Win or lose, I am still proud of you guys,'" she added. "There were some odds against us, but you just have to keep going, you got to fight through stuff."
The Mocs entered the McArthur Center with a short bench. Already missing guards Morgan Siebka (Slippery Rock, Pa.) and Shaquita Snow (Orange Park, Fla.), and forward Gianna Vastola (Sarasota, Fla.), FSC was without the services of 6-1 forward Christin Strawbridge (Lakeland, Fla.).
"We had four starters out; we only had eight players and mostly played with seven," Betsy Harris said.
Junior guard Ali Sanders (Sleepy Hollow, Ill.) stepped up in the absence of FSC's two leading scorers by netting a season-high 18 points. She went 5-for-13 from the field and was 7-for-10 from the charity stripe.
"We needed that," Betsy Harris said. "Ali did a good job. She was aggressive and she played a lot smarter."
Thompson hit her first 3-pointer at 16:34 in the first half to make the score 6-5 in favor of the Tritons. Thomas answered with a trey of her own. Trine Kasemagi scored her team's next seven points, including an unconventional 3-point play at 13:40. The and-one put the Mocs in a 16-9 hole.
The Mocs scored nine of the next 10 points, four of them from sophomore forward Danielle Thomas (Conyers, Ga.). Sanders feed Thomas for a jumper in the lane and the Mocs trailed by two, 16-11.
Thomas made a pair of free throws to make it 17-15. On Eckerd's next two trips up the floor, Thomas forced a turnover and blocked a layup attempt by Victoria Vine. On the offensive end, the Mocs took an 18-17 lead.
The Mocs held a one-point lead, 26-25, at halftime.
Neither team played particularly well in the low-scoring first half. FSC turned the ball over in 10 times in the first 18-plus minutes and shot 9-for-26 in the first half. Eckerd went 3-for-15 from the field in the last 12:06 with eight turnovers in that span.
The Mocs improved in the second half, shooting 50.0 percent (14-28).
Twenty-five seconds into the second half, Sanders drained a triple to put the Mocs ahead 29-27. They held a one-point lead following a Vine free throw, and that would be the last time they led in the contest.
Freshman guard Jensen Blassage (Cherry Valley, Ill.), who found herself in early foul trouble and only played 14 minutes, went coast-to-coast for a layup at 14:45 to bring the Mocs within one, 37-36.
The Tritons, however, buried back-to-back 3-pointers 24 seconds apart, the latter by Thomas to start an 11-0 run. After four points from FSC, three off a Payne and-one, Eckerd used a 14-6 stretch to take their largest lead of the game at 15.
Thomas finished with 27 points, the most the Mocs have allowed a single player to score in a game this season. She was 10-for-15 (66.7 percent) on field-goal attempts and 5-for-8 from beyond the arc.
Thompson scored 11 for FSC, and Davis and Harris each netted 10 in the losing effort. Payne recorded a game-high four steals.
Florida Southern returns home for two straight SSC contests, the first against on Saturday, Feb. 21 against Lynn (7-15, 1-12 SSC) at 5:30 p.m. The Mocs scored a season-high 90 points in their 90-85 road win over the Fighting Knights on Jan. 24.
