Box Score KISSIMMEE - Florida Southern left little doubt about who the best men's basketball team is in the Sunshine State Conference here Sunday afternoon as the top-ranked and top-seeded Moccasins outscored Barry 47-29 in the first half en route to earning a 93-83 victory over the 13th-ranked Buccaneers to take home its fourth consecutive SSC Tournament Championship at the Silver Spurs Arena.
With the victory, the Mocs took home its 23rd SSC Tournament title and became the first team to four-peat since the Mocs won four straight tournament titles from 1998-01. The victory also extended the Mocs win streak to 19 straight games overall and its SSC Tournament win streak to 11 consecutive games since falling to Eckerd in the semifinals of the 2011 Tournament.
The win also improved FSC's record to 30-1 as the Mocs have now won 30 games for the third time in school history and the first time since the 1999-00 squad posted a 32-2 record.
"I don't think you'll see too many teams win four in a row again. It's not easy," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said in the postgame press conference. "You have to play really well and you to make plays. One of the things that our guys have done is they've made plays when they've had to win to win these four straight tournament championships."
In Sunday's game, Barry, who fell to 24-5 with the loss, jumped out to anb 8-6 lead in the opening four minutes of the game as the Mocs missed nine of its first 11 shots.
After that start, the Mocs responded with a 20-8 run over the next five-plus minutes to push out to a 26-16 lead. The Mocs run began with back-to-back treys from junior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) and was capped by senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) scoring six of the final eight points. Capers, who repeated as the SSC Tournament MVP, led the way offensively for the Mocs with 28 points and pulled nine rebounds.
Capers is the second straight Moccasin to repeat as the SSC Tournament MVP as Seth Evans captured back-to-back MVP honors in 2012 and 2013.
After Anders Haas stopped the Mocs run with a jumper, the Mocs would use a 13-2 run capped by a bucket from Capers to push its lead to 39-20 with 5:08 left in the opening half.
Barry would close the half on a 9-8 run to drop the Mocs halftime lead to 47-29.
"I thought in the first half we played about as well as we have in a long time," said Darner. "We were able contain Deric Hill, limit their ability to shoot wide open 3-point shots and we were able to take care of the basketball."
For the game, the Mocs finished with just five turnovers, including just two in the first half. Barry, on the other hand, committed 14 turnovers that led 17 Moccasin points. The Bucs had 11 of those 14 turnovers in the first half.
"To have just five turnovers against a team like Barry is just unbelievable," Darner said when asked about his team's ability to protect the ball on Sunday.
The Mocs 18 point halftime lead grew to as much as 23 points in the opening five minutes of the second half as FSC opened the second half on a 17-12 run. The run was capped by back-to-back treys senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) and Williams.
Kelly and Williams, who was one of three Mocs named to the SSC All-Tournament Team, each finished the game with 14 points, while junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) added 11 points off the bench in the win.
Following FSC's second half spurt, Barry would respond with a 13-4 run to pull within 68-54 following a lay-up by Juan Ferrales with 11:12 left in the game.
Williams would drill another trey a little over a minute later to push the Mocs lead back to 71-54, before Barry would make one more push as they used a 22-14 run capped by a 3-pointer from Arie Williams with 1:06 left in the game. Williams' trey dropped the Mocs lead to 85-76.
The Mocs would close out the game by hitting 8-of-12 free throws over the final minute of the game to hold off the Bucs and seal its 30th win of the season and improve to 8-0 in SSC Tournament games played at the Silver Spurs Arena.
"I knew they (Barry) would make runs at us in the second half. They're a good team," Darner added. "Our whole thing was when they made a run, it's got to be four or six nothing and not 10 or 12. They can do that especially when they can force turnovers.
"Our guys did a great job today of not turning the ball over and that played a big part in our win."
Yunio Barrueta led the way for the Bucs with 24 points and added 10 rebounds, while Haas and Williams each had 12 points in the loss. Ferrales finished with 11 points and Savad Garner added 10 pointsd and five boards as the Bucs held a 48-40 edge on the glass for the game.
Joining Capers and Williams on the All-Tournament Team were Barreuta and Garner from Barry, along with Moccasin senior forwards Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) and Bubby Johnson (Waldorf, Md.).
"I thought Bubby was very deserving of being named to the All-Tournament Team," the Mocs coach said. "He did a great job guarding in the post, not only today but the entire tournament. He is our most improved player from a year ago and the things he does to help us win games doesn't always show up on the stat sheet."
For the game, the Mocs shot 40 percent from the field and 28 percent from the 3-point line, while Barry shot 43 percent from the field and 23 percent from downtown.
The one area where the Mocs had an advantage was at the free throw line as they connected on 29-of-38 free throws in the game and shot 76 percent at the line. Barry was just 10-for-14 at the line.
FSC shot 26 of those 38 free throws after halftime as they were 18-for-26 at the line in the second half.
FSC will return to action next weekend as they are expected to be named as the host school for the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament. The tournament will be held from March 14-17. The NCAA will announce the 64 team field at 10:30 p.m. EST online at www.ncaa.com.
