Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern and Saint Leo added another chapter to their rivalry here Saturday evening in front of a crowd of 1,019 fans at Jenkins Field House as the 107th meeting all-time in the series came down to the final seconds as Saint Leo held on for an 89-86 Sunshine State Conference victory.
Among those in the crowd on Saturday night was former Moccasin head coach Linc Darner, who was in town visiting his family after his Green Bay team played a Horizon League game Friday night at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
With the setback, the reigning National Champion Moccasins suffered its fourth straight loss on the season and dropped its record to 8-13 overall and 4-7 in the SSC. Meanwhile, Saint Leo improved to 13-7 overall and 7-4 in the SSC with the win and swept the season series from the Mocs for the second time in the last four seasons as they also swept the season series in 2012-13. The Lions picked up a 91-89 win on their home court earlier this season.
The final four minutes of Saturday's game was a back-and-forth affair as every shot the Mocs hit, the Lions would answer on the other end of the floor with a shot of their own.
"What a great college basketball game tonight as both teams were going back-and-forth at each other," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said following his team's 13th loss of the season. "They (Saint Leo) did make some plays down the stretch, but I thought our guys were right there. Give Saint Leo a lot of credit, they made some huge shots down the stretch and got a couple of key rebounds, it was a game that came down to one or two possessions."
Perhaps no possession was more critical than the one the Mocs had with 47 seconds left in the game and trailing 83-81. On that possession, Moccasin senior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) got into the lane and put up a shot that looked like he might've gotten fouled on, but the officials didn't blow their whistles. The shot fell short to keep Saint Leo in the lead at 83-81.
On Williams' shot, the ball was hit out of bounds by the Lions and it gave the Mocs another possession. On that next possession, junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa.) misfired on a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left and the Lions would hit two free throws on the other end with 23 seconds left to take an 85-81 lead.
Zablotny would bring the Mocs within two points 11 seconds later as he scored on a lay-up to drop SLU's lead to 85-83. Marcus Dewberry would hit two free throw on the Lions next possession to give his team an 87-83 lead and on the ensuing possession, Moccasin senior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) turned the ball over and Caleb Stewart would hit two free throws with six seconds left to give the Lions an 89-83 advantage.
Williams would cap the game's scoring as he drilled a trey from the far corner right before the buzzer sounded.
"I really liked the way we came out tonight, especially after how we played at Barry the other night," said Donnelly. "I thought we really competed on both ends of the floor, but we just couldn't get some breaks or some shots to go our way. But we're still in the fight. We have seven games to go and we're playing for our lives."
The Mocs were boosted on Saturday by the return of Travis, who had missed the last three games due to a foot injury suffered late in the Mocs game on Jan. 16 at Nova Southeastern. Travis leads the Mocs in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals on the season. In his first game in two weeks on Saturday, Travis, who was one of four Mocs to score in double figures against Saint Leo, finished with 19 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals in 39 minutes of action.
"Dylan's return seemed to give everyone a ton of confidence, he seemed to lift everyone's spirits," the Mocs coach added. "He made a huge impact in terms of facilitating, rebounding and making plays. I am really proud of him."
Donnelly was asked what he expected out Travis in Saturday's game after returning to practice for the first time on Friday.
"I really didn't know what type of stamina he would have since he just returned to practice on Friday, but he's in great shape and is a really competitive kid and was ready to play tonight."
Along with Travis, Williams led the Mocs with a team high 20 points and added seven boards. With his 20 points, he not only extended his streak of scoring double figures to 19 consecutive games, he also moved up to 23rd on the school's all-time scoring chart as he has now scored 1,111 career points.
Zablotny also finished the night with 19 points, including scoring 12 of them in the second half and the final double-digit scorer was junior guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) as he tallied 16 points, including scoring 14 of those points in the first half to help the Mocs earn a 38-36 lead at the half.
Saint Leo's offense was mostly in the hands of Marcus Dewberry on Saturday night as the Lake Wales, Fla., native finished the game with 35 points, including scoring 25 of those in the second half. Dewberry scored 12 of those 25 second half points over the final five-plus minutes of the game.
"Dewberry had the hot hand tonight. He hit big shot after big shot for Saint Leo," said Donnelly. "I thought Dylan (Travis) did a nice job guarding him on a lot of those shots, but he just stepped up and hit them."
In addition to Dewberry, Caleb Stewart finished with a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Tyreece Brice had 12 points, including hitting a trey with 3:59 left in the game to give the Lions a 75-71 lead.
Brice's trey would ignite the Mocs as Williams followed 22 seconds later with a trey of his own to pull the Mocs within a point at 75-74. After Dewberry misfired on a 3-pointer on SLU's next possession, the Mocs would take a 76-75 lead on a jumper by Travis with 2:59 left in the game.
After Brice gave the Lions the lead back with 2:39 left, Zablotny would score on the other end following Brice's basket to give the Mocs a 78-77 lead with 2:23 remaining. That would be FSC's final lead of the game, though, as Dewberry scored four straight points to give the Lions an 81-78 lead with 1:48 left.
Zablotny would answer the Lions run by drilling trey with 1:35 left to tie the game at 83. Dewberry would score again with 1:05 left in the game to give SLU an 83-81 lead.
Saint Leo, who earned an 87-84 upset at home on Wednesday over 10th-ranked Eckerd, jumped out to an early 12-8 lead in the game's opening six minutes, but the Mocs answered with a 5-1 run capped by two Zablotny free throws to take a 13-12 lead with 11:53 left in the opening half.
After SLU took a 16-15 lead on a free throw by Brice, the Mocs would respond with a 21-11 run to take a 36-27 lead with 2:28 left in the half. The Lions would close out the opening half on a 9-2 run to cut the Mocs lead at the half to 38-36.
For the game, the Mocs shot 40 percent from the field and 32 percent (10-for-31) from the 3-point line and was 20-for-23 (87 percent) at the free throw line. The Mocs forced SLU into 17 turnovers and held a 20-13 edge in points off turnovers.
SLU finished the game shooting 47 percent from the floor, including shooting 50 percent from the field in the second half and shot 35 percent from the 3-point line on the night. The Lions, who entered the game second in SSC in free throw shooting at 75.9 percent, went 23-for-24 (96 percent) at the line in the win.
The Mocs were outrebounded, 43-34, but held a 17-16 edge on the glass in the second half and dished out 19 assists on 28 made field goals. The Lions had 16 assists on 29 made field goals.
FSC will look to snap its four game losing streak on Wednesday, Feb. 3 as they host Palm Beach Atlantic (12-7) in a 7:30 p.m. non-conference game at Jenkins Field House. The Sailfish earned a 99-96 overtime win over the Mocs in West Palm Beach on Dec. 12.
"I wish we were playing tomorrow so we could carry over the momentum from this game tonight," the Mocs coach stated. "But all we can do now though is get ready for Palm Beach and hopefully give the type of effort we gave tonight once again on Wednesday."
