Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern moved one step closer to returning to the Division II Elite Eight here Sunday evening as the top-seeded and top-ranked Moccasins posted an impressive 84-81 victory over No. 4 seeded West Georgia in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament at Jenkins Field House.
With Sunday's victory, the Mocs now advance on to Tuesday's championship game where they will face No. 6 seeded Lynn (21-9) at 7 p.m. to decide who will represent the South Region at this year's Elite Eight, which is scheduled for March 25-28 in Evansville, Ind. The Fighting Knights earned its trip to the regional final after posting a 90-82 win in Sunday's first semifinal against 12th-ranked and No. 2 seeded Barry University.
Along with earning a spot in the region championship game for the 11th time in school history and first time since 2013, the Mocs also tied the school record for single season wins as Sunday's victory improved the Mocs record to 32-1 overall. The 1999-00 squad that advanced to the Elite Eight ended the season with a 32-2 record.
"It's a huge win for our team. Their guards, Stocks and Abreu are unbelievable players," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following his team's 21st consecutive victory this season. "Our whole goal in the game was to make them take tough shots and try to make them hit shots between 15-18 feet, not give them lay-ups and a bunch of threes."
Entering the game, UWG's backcourt tandem of senior guard Alex Abreu and sophomore guard Deonta Stocks were averaging a combined 39.1 points per game and had combined to score 44 of the Wolves 80 points in its 80-79 quarterfinal win on Saturday against No. 5 seeded West Alabama.
"I know Abreu went 6-for-9, but Stocks was 0-for-4 from the 3-point line and those two players are tremendous," Darner added.
On offense, Darner stressed to his team in shoot-around on Sunday that they needed to attack the rim and not settle for jump shots against UWG's defense.
"I told them not to settle for jumpers, but to attack them as I thought they'd foul us if we attacked and got to the basket. We needed to shoot more free throws than three-pointers against them," the Mocs coach said. "In the second half we got to the free throw line a little bit more and didn't shoot as many three's. We still wanted to shoot three's, but we wanted to look to attack more for tonight for that reason."
For the game, the Mocs shot 26 free throws and 26 three-pointers, including 11 treys and 15 free throws in the second half. On the night, the Mocs finished shooting 41 percent from the field and 35 percent from the 3-point line, while UWG shot 38 percent from the floor and 37 percent from the 3-point line.
The Moccasin offense was again paced by senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) as the two-time Daktronics South Region Player of the Year scored a team-high 24 points and added five rebounds, six assists and three steals. The 24 points was Capers' 49th career 20-plus point game and his 105th career double figure scoring effort.
With his 24 points, Capers pushed his career scoring total to 2,226 and extended his double figure scoring streak to 20 straight games.
Along with Capers' 24 points, junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) added 13 points and eight boards off the bench, while junior guard Dominique Wiliams (Haines City, Fla.) had 12 points and senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) had 10 points in the win.
In Sunday's game, the teams were tied at 41 at the half thanks to Mocs scoring the final four points of the opening half after UWG had pushed its lead out to 41-37 following a 3-pointer from Taylor Cochran with 1:47 left in the first stanza.
After opening the second half on an 8-2 run capped by back-to-back baskets from senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) to push out to a 49-43 lead, the Mocs would see that lead whittle away to one point at 63-62 after a trey from Abreu with 10:13 left in the game. Abreu's trey capped a 19-14 run by the Wolves.
The Mocs, though, would respond with a 14-6 run that began with a trey from Travis and ended with two free throws by Capers with 5:19 left in the game. Capers' two free throws gave the Mocs a 77-68 advantage.
After Abreu, who scored a game-high 30 points in his final collegiate game, hit a lay-up to to pull UWG within 77-70, Moccasin senior guard Tyler Logan (Landover, Md.) hit a jumper to make it 79-70 with 4:18 remaining.
The Wolves, who closed out the season with a 22-9 record, wouldn't go away without a fight as two Abreu treys and a lay-up by Marcus Dortch brought UWG within three points at 81-78 with 37 seconds left. FSC would hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal its win and improve to 40-30 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.
In addition to Abreu, Stocks finished the night with 18 points as he was 5-for-20 from the field in the loss.
The Mocs were outrebounded 47-45 on the night, including getting outrebounded 18-16 on the offensive glass, but forced UWG into 18 turnovers that led to 21 points. The Wolves were also able to score 21 points off of 15 Moccasin turnovers.
Senior forward Bubby Johnson (Waldorf, Md.) led the way on the boards for the Mocs with a game high 11.
FSC will now turn its attention to a fourth match-up this season with Lynn in Tuesday's regional championship game. The Mocs won both regular season meetings against the Fighting Knights and picked up a 79-66 win in the Sunshine State Conference Tournament semifinals in Kissimmee on March 7.
"Right now, Lynn is playing unbelievable. We played really well against them all three times we've faced them, but I'm sure they'll be ready to play on Tuesday night," Darner said when asked about Tuesday's championship game match-up. "They're getting up and really, really pressuring the ball extremely well right now. I thought they took UAH out of everything they wanted to do on Saturday and then tonight they jumped on Barry right away.
"They are playing with a lot of confidence and it should be a heck of a game."
