Box Score DAVIE - Florida Southern put the brakes on its two-game losing streak here Saturday afternoon as the Moccasins outlasted Nova Southeastern 84-79 in Sunshine State Conference action in NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center.
Saturday's game was broadcast live on ESPN3 as part of the NCAA Division II National Game of the Week package.
The victory was keyed by a career-high 23 point scoring outburst by junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa.), including drilling a trey from left corner with 21 seconds left off a pass from senior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.). Travis finished the game with 26 points, including going 9-for-9 from the free throw line.
"We started Sheldon today and he gave us a spark offensively early in the game and then hit a huge shot at the end of the game to seal our win," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said.
With the win, the Mocs improve to 8-9 overall and 4-3 in the SSC, while NSU fell to 5-9 overall and 1-5 in the SSC. In addition, the win snapped a four game road losing skid for the Mocs.
Zablotny played one of his best games of his brief Moccasin career against the Sharks as he opened the game by hitting three treys in the opening four minutes of the game to help the Mocs get off 12-5 lead. Zablotny, who played a season high 36 minutes, scored 12 of his 23 points in the first half.
Thanks to Zablotny's hot shooting to open the game, the Mocs hit 7 of its first 10 treys and jumped out to a 27-14 lead just 11 minutes into the game. Along with Zablotny hitting four 3-pointers, Travis, senior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) and sophomore forward R.J. June (Sanford, Fla.) each hit one in the opening flurry from long distance.
"We really got off to a hot start shooting the ball from the perimeter, but then we cooled off and that allowed them (Nova Southeastern) to get back into the game," said Donnelly, who improved to 203-161 in his 13th season as a collegiate coach.
After that opening flurry from downtown, the Mocs finished the first half missing 12 of its final 13 treys and that helped the Sharks close the opening half on a 21-14 run to drop the Mocs lead to 41-35 at the half.
Nova, who has now lost three straight games, opened the second half on a 20-15 run to pull within 56-55 with 10:14 left in the game. The Sharks run was aided by nine points from Casey Carroll, who was one of four NSU players to finish in double figures with 11 points.
The Mocs answered with back-to-back treys from Williams that helped ignite a 13-3 run that pushed the Mocs lead to 69-58 with 6:13 remaining.
Williams finished the game with 16 points to extend his double figure scoring streak to 15 straight games and move him 34th on the school's all-time scoring chart with 1,032 points.
"This is Dylan and Dominique's team and they continue to lead us," the Mocs coach said. "They once again played well and stepped up and made some plays when we needed them."
NSU, though, wouldn't go away as they had another run in them as they answered the Mocs run with a 19-8 run to tie the game at 77 with 1:10 remaining on a lay-up by Chris Page, who finished with 14 points in the loss.
Travis would give the Mocs a 79-77 lead 12 seconds later after hitting two free throws, but NSU retied the game 12 seconds later on two free throws by Harrison Goodrick.
On the ensuing possession, Travis found Zablotny spotted up in the left corner and he delivered a pass that led to Zablotny's trey to give the Mocs an 82-79 lead. After Page misfired on a tying trey with 10 seconds left, junior guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) sealed the victory with two free throws with five seconds remaining.
Along with Travis, Zablotny and Williams, the Mocs fourth double-digit scorer was sophomore forward Tyler Ross (St. John, Ind.) as he had 10 points and eight boards.
"Tyler has played great in some of biggest wins we've had this year and once again tonight he stepped up," Donnelly stated.
Goodrick led the way offensively for the Sharks as he finished with 19 points, while Dwayne Gibson scored 16 points, including 12 in the second half.
The Mocs finished the game shooting 41 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line and was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line. It marked the first time the Mocs were perfect from the free throw line (minimum of 10 attempts) in a game since going 16-for-16 from the line against Southern Indiana on Nov. 29, 2008.
Meanwhile, NSU shot 44 percent from the field and 39 percent from the 3-point line. The Sharks were also 10-for-18 (56 percent) from the line in the loss.
Both teams recorded 42 rebounds and the Mocs had 14 turnovers on the day, while NSU committed 13 turnovers.
The Mocs will seek its second straight win as they close out the first half of SSC play on Wednesday, Jan. 20 with a 7:30 p.m. game in Winter Park against Rollins (11-6 overall, 4-3 SSC), who suffered an 88-86 home loss on Saturday to Palm Beach Atlantic.
"We have another tough one coming up this coming Wednesday night against Rollins," said Donnelly. "They are one of our biggest rivals and it will be another big game for us."
