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LAKELAND - For the second straight game, Florida Southern couldn't hold a halftime lead as they were outscored 53-34 after halftime en route to suffering a 100-89 setback at home here Saturday night to Lynn in Sunshine State Conference action at Jenkins Field House.
With the defeat, the reigning National Champion Moccasins fell to 8-11 overall and 4-5 in the SSC, while Lynn improved to 9-8 overall and 3-6 in the league. In addition, Lynn snapped a 15 game losing skid to the Mocs in the series with Saturday's victory. Prior to Saturday's win, the last time Lynn had defeated the Mocs was on Feb. 21, 2009 as Lynn earned a 70-69 win in Lakeland.
"Tonight's game was a lot like Wednesday night's game at Rollins," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said following the game. "We were unable to once again hold onto our halftime lead."
The reigning National Champion Moccasins used 58 percent shooting from the field and 53 percent shooting from the 3-point line to take a 55-47 lead at the half, but the Fighting Knights opened the second half on a 27-9 run to take a 74-64 lead with 10:28 left in the game.
"We scored 55 points in the first half, but I knew we couldn't sustain that offensively in the second half, so we challenged our guys at the half to be ready, because we knew Lynn would make a run," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said following his team's fourth home loss of the season. "We just didn't respond defensively in the second half."
Saturday's game, which marked the first game of the second half of SSC play for both teams, was the second consective game that the Mocs couldn't hold a halftime lead as they led 37-33 over the Tars at the half, but Rollins shot 62 percent from the field and outscored the Mocs, 58-33 in the second half to post an 89-72 victory.
In the Lynn game on Saturday, the Fighting Knights shot 48 percent from the field and held a 31-6 edge in free throw attempts after halftime and held the Mocs to 37 percent shooting from the field and 21 percent shooting from long distance to post its come-from-behind victory.
Donnelly said that one thing that seemed to spark the Fighting Knights was a lay-up by Fred Landers with four seconds left in the first half. Landers' basket came 30 seconds after junior guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) hit two free throws to give the Mocs a 55-45 lead.
Landers' bucket seem to light a fire under the Fighting Knights as they opened the second half scoring 14 of the first 16 points to take a 61-57 lead with 16:08 left in the game. In fact, Lynn scored the first seven points of the second half.
After a trey from senior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) stopped LU's run and brought the Mocs within two points at 61-59, the Fighting Knights responded with a 21-7 run to push its lead to 82-66 with 8:39 remaining.
The Mocs, though, wouldn't go away as they slowly chipped away at Lynn's lead as they used a 15-7 run capped by a lay-up from junior guard Trey Moore (Omaha, Neb.) with 2:47 left to pull within 89-81. The run was keyed by six points from Williams, who finished the night with a game high 24 points, including scoring 15 of them in the second half.
That would be as close as the Mocs would get, though, as LU responded with a 9-4 run to take a 98-85 lead with 32 seconds remaining. All nine of Lynn's points came at the free throw during the run.
Volovic, who finished the game with 12 points and dished out a career high eight assists, dropped LU's lead to 98-87 on a lay-up with 24 seconds left. David Johnson put Lynn into triple digits on a dunk with nine seconds left and Volovic capped the scoring with a lay-up as time expired.
In addition to Williams and Volovic, Moore finished the game with career-high tying 15 points off the bench, while junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa.) tallied 12 points, but was held to just one point after halftime. In Wednesday's game at Rollins, Zablotny scored all 19 of his points in the first half, but did not score in the second half.
The Mocs played for the second consecutive game without senior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.), who suffered a foot injury in last Saturday's game at Nova Southeastern. Travis is FSC's leader in both scoring and rebounding on the season as he is averaging 22.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.
Landers led the way for Lynn with a team high 23 points, including scoring 14 in the first half. In addition, Ben Berry added 16 points, while Russell Wilson chipped in with 14 points, seven assists and no turnovers in 30 minutes of action. Johnson and Pavle Raickovic each had 12 points and Allen Baez and Jamal Palmer both had 11 points as Lynn had seven of the nine players that saw action on Saturday night score in double figures.
Early on in Saturday's game the Mocs showed little hangover from its loss at Rollins as they jumped out to an early 8-2 lead and led by as much at 10 points at 29-19 just a little over 10 minutes into the game. The opening flurry by the Mocs was keyed by 11 of those 29 points coming from Zablotny.
The Mocs lead would grow to as much as 12 points at 44-32 following two free throws by Moore with 3:59 left in the opening half.
After Wilson brought LU within nine on a trey with 3:41 left, the Mocs would score four of the next six points to push its lead back to 11 points at 48-37 with 2:45 left in the half.
Back-to-back treys from Landers brought LU within five at 48-43, but a trey from Moore and a bucket from Volovic helped push FSC's lead back to 10 at 53-43. After the two teams traded free throws, Landers would end the half on his lay-up to drop the Mocs lead to 55-47 at the half.
For the game, the shot 47 percent from the field and 38 percent (11-for-39) from the 3-point line and was just 12-for-15 at the line, including going 3-for-6 at the line in the second half.
Meanwhile, Lynn finished the game shooting 48 percent and 44 percent from the 3-point line and was 65 percent (30-for-46) at the line as the Mocs were whistled for 28 fouls and had three players foul out. Lynn was called for just 16 fouls on the night.
FSC held a 42-40 edge on the glass as sophomore forward Tyler Ross (St. John, Ind.) led the way with eight boards, while sophomore guard R.J. June (Sanford, Fla.) had seven. Johnson and Berry led the Fighting Knights with eight boards apiece.
The Mocs committed 15 turnovers that led to 16 points, including committing nine turnovers in the second half that led to 10 points. Lynn finished the game with eight turnovers that led to 12 Moccasin points.
FSC will look to snap a two-game losing skid this coming Wednesday, Jan. 27 as they travel to Miami Shores for a 7:30 p.m. showdown against league preseason favorite Barry (13-3 overall, 6-2 SSC). The Mocs opened SSC play with a 74-72 win over the Buccaneers in Lakeland on Nov. 18.
