Box Score MIAMI SHORES - Florida Southern's struggles away from home continued here Wednesday evening as the Moccasins suffered a 101-63 setback to 24th-ranked Barry in Sunshine State Conference action at the Health and Sports Center on the Barry University campus.
Wednesday's loss was the eighth of the season away from home for the reigning National Champion Moccasins as they fell to 3-8 on the road overall and 2-3 on the road in SSC play this season.
In addition to suffering its eighth road loss of the season, the setback was also FSC's third consecutive loss as their record fell to 8-12 overall and 4-6 in the SSC. Barry improved to 14-3 overall and 7-2 in the league with the win and snapped a three-game losing skid to the Mocs, including a 74-72 loss in Lakeland earlier this season.
For the third straight game the Mocs played without its leading scorer and rebounder, senior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) and also was without sophomore forward R.J. June (Sanford, Fla.), who suffered an injury in practice on Tuesday night.
"We can't make excuses for the injuries, that is part of the game, but with the injuries it has given a lot of guys opportunities and they have to make the most of it," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said. "The train is running full speed ahead onward and upward and we need to keep this thing rolling. We are Florida Southern and I completely know what that means, so no excuses, we will get better, but the train will keep on rolling."
Without Travis and June in the line-up, the Mocs depth took a hit, especially in the second half as the Buccaneers outscored the Mocs, 55-29 after halftime.
Senior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) once again led the Mocs in scoring as he finished with 15 points, including 13 of them in the first half. With his 13 points, Williams extended his double figure scoring streak to 18 games and is now 27th in career scoring with 1,089 points.
Along with Williams, junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa.) had 13 points and a team and career-high eight rebounds, while freshman forward Jarel Spellman (Richmond, Va.) added 11 points and seven boards in the loss.
Wednesday's game marked the second straight game that the Mocs have allowed an opponent to score 100 points and Lynn tallied 100 points in its 100-89 win in Lakeland last Saturday. It is the first time since the 1964-65 season that the Mocs had allowed an opponent to score 100 in back-to-back games. In 1964-65, the Mocs allowed 100 points in three consecutive games at Miami (Fla.) (124-93), at Marshall (110-81) and at Ohio University (106-71).
Barry's win was aided by a 60-32 edge on the glass, including holding a 34-13 edge on the glass in the second half. Trey Leonard led the way on the boards for the Bucs as he pulled down 15 for the game.
At halftime, Barry held a 26-19 edge and the margin was 33-25 at the first media timeout of the second half (14:24) and by fourth and final media timeout with 3:52 left in the game, Barry's rebound margin grew to 52-28.
"We really struggled on the boards tonight and that played a role in the outcome of the game," the Moccasin coach added.
Barry was paced offensively by 22 points and nine rebounds from All-American forward Yunio Barrueta.
After watching Barry jump out to a 12-4 lead with 16:03 left in the first half, the Mocs answered with a 17-10 run to pull within 22-21 with 9:18 left in the half. The Mocs run began with a trey from Williams and was capped by a trey from freshman forward Joey Morlan (Fort Wayne, Ind.).
Barry would respond with a 6-2 run to push out to a 28-23 lead, but then Barrueta would take over as he score nine of his 22 points in a two minute stretch late in the first half to turn a 36-32 Barry lead into a 42-32 advantage with 2:49 left in the opening half.
That run of points by Barrueta came on the heels of the Mocs using a 6-2 run capped by a lay-up from Zablotny to pull within 30-29 with 5:50 left in the opening half.
Following Barry's run, the Mocs used a bucket from Zablotny to pull within 42-34, but Adrian Gonzalez would score two consecutive baskets to give Barry a 46-34 lead at the half.
The Mocs opened the second half on an 11-7 run to pull within 53-45 with 16:59 left in the game. The Mocs run began with two free throws from junior guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) and was capped by a 3-pointer from Spellman. The trey Spellman was the first of his collegiate career.
That would be as close as the Mocs would get as the Bucs responded with a 29-9 run to push out to an 82-54 lead with 7:27 remaining.
The Mocs stopped Barry's run with a dunk from Spellman 10 seconds later, but a lay-up from Leonard with seven minutes left began a 14-2 run to give Barry a 98-58 lead with 3:32 remaining. A trey by Zablotny dropped Barry's lead to 37 points at 98-61, but the Bucs would hit the century mark on a lay-up by Marko Tomic with 2:18 left in game.
In addition to Barrueta, Elvar Fridriksson added 16 points, including scoring 14 in the first half, while Undra Mitchem, Gonzalez and Leonard each had 12 points in the win. The final double-digit scorer for the Bucs was Arie Williams as he finished with 10 points off the bench.
The Mocs finished the night shooting 34 percent from the field and 28 percent from the 3-point line. FSC, who entered the game averaging an SSC best 11.6 treys per game, hit just eight treys for the game.
With its eight treys, the Mocs snapped a streak of 11 straight games of hitting 10 or more treys.
Meanwhile, Barry shot 48 percent from the field and 38 percent from the 3-point line.
The Mocs will look to regroup on Saturday, Jan. 30 as they return home to Jenkins Field House for a 7:30 p.m. game against Saint Leo, who improved to 13-7 overall and 6-4 in the SSC following its 87-84 upset win at home against 10th-ranked Eckerd. The Lions posted a 91-89 win over the Mocs at Saint Leo on Dec. 2.
