Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern up-and-down season continued here Saturday evening as Embry-Riddle outscored the Moccasins, 60-43, in the second half en route to posting a 102-92 non-conference South Region victory at Jenkins Field House.
With the setback, the Mocs fell to 10-16 overall and finished non-conference play with a 5-7 record, while Embry-Riddle improved to 15-9 on the season.
Saturday's game was a tale of two halves as the reigning national champion Moccasins shot 57 percent from the field and 63 percent (10-for-16) from the 3-point line to take a 49-43 lead at the half, but the Eagles, who are in their first season as a provisional member of the Sunshine State Conference, shot 58 percent from the field in the second half to rally to post a sweep of the season series.
"It was terrible execution on both sides of the ball. We battled and that's what you're supposed to do, it's college basketball in February, everyone is playing for their lives," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said following his team's seventh home loss of the season. "We battled, but battling is not enough. We have to be able to find ways to make plays and get stops and tonight we didn't do that in the second half. We gave up 60 points in the second half on our home floor, it's just very disappointing."
After holding a 49-42 lead at the half, the Mocs opened the second half by scoring six of the first nine points to push its lead to 55-45 following a trey from senior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) with 17:38 left in the game.
The Eagles, who went 35-2 last season and advanced to the semifinals of the NAIA National Tournament, would respond with a 14-0 run capped by a lay-up from Reed Ridder to give ERAU a 59-55 advantage with 14:28 left in the game. The Eagles run was keyed by four missed shots and four turnovers, including converting two of the turnovers into five points, from the Mocs.
"We've been very inconsistent as a team this season. We've kept playing hard, but I would like to see us take that next step and that's frustrating, because we're all waiting for it to happen," said Donnelly, who is in his first season at the helm of the Moccasin program.
FSC would come right and score five quick points, including retaking the lead at 60-59 on a 3-pointer by senior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.). Williams finished the game with 14 points and became just the 16th Moccasin in school history to score at least 1,200 career points. Williams has now tallied 1,212 points in 120 career games.
The teams would then take turns trading the lead as Dalton Barnes gave the Eagles a 61-60 lead with 13:20 left in the game, but junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa.) drilled a trey just 29 seconds later to give the Mocs a 63-61 lead.
A trey by Ridder just 24 seconds after Zablotny's triple helped ignite an 11-8 run by the Eagles that pushed its lead to 75-71 with 10:08 left in the game.
The Mocs, though, wouldn't go away as they responded with a 7-2 run capped by a lay-up from Williams with 8:51 left to give the Mocs a 78-77 lead. ERAU would answer FSC's run with a 10-4 flurry of its own to retake the lead at 87-82 with 5:43 remaining.
"I didn't think we showed the same grit and determination that we showed on Wednesday at Tampa," said the Mocs coach. "The game at Tampa was a must-win game and we went out and played with a certain energy and focus and that was something I thought we didn't show tonight, especially in the second half."
Trailing by five with a little under six minutes left in the game, the Mocs showed a little life as they responded to ERAU's run with an 8-2 run that began with two free throws Travis and was capped by a three-point play from Williams to give the Mocs a 90-89 lead with 3:40 left in the game.
That would be the final lead of the game for the Mocs as the Eagles would close out the contest by scoring 13 of the final 15 points, including hitting six straight free throws in the final 53 seconds, to seal the victory.
Travis led the way offensively on the night for the Mocs as he finished with 29 points and added nine rebounds and six assists. Travis scored 20 of his 29 points in the first half.
In addition to Travis and Williams, junior guard Trey Moore (Omaha, Neb.) tallied a career high 19 points and dished out a career high seven assists. Like Travis, Moore scored 12 of his 19 points in the opening half.
The fourth Moccasin in double figures was junior guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) as he had 13 points, all of which came in the second half.
Embry-Riddle put six players in double figures in the win, including a career high 32 points from Barnes. Along with Barnes, who scored 21 of his 32 points after halftime, Ognjen Miljkovic added 21 points and seven boards going up against Moccasin freshman forward Jarel Spellman (Richmond, Va.).
In the first meeting this season between the two teams, a game the Mocs lost 112-91, Miljkovic had 27 points and 13 rebounds.
"I thought Jarel did a good job for the most part defensively against #45 (Miljkovic) tonight. I know he got his numbers, but he had to work for them," Donnelly added. "The last time we played them, Jarel couldn't guard him. We've seen tremendous growth in Jarel as the season has progressed."
Spellman finished Saturday's game with six points, seven rebounds and blocked five shots to increase his season total to 82 blocks, which is third most on the school's single season charts.
Ridder chipped in with 14 points, while Dillon Graham had 12 points, Daniel Kiesling tallied 11 and Skylar Hogan had 10 off the bench in the win.
In the first half, the Mocs jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the game's opening three-plus minutes. The lead would stay around double digits until the Eagles used a 13-5 run to turn a 23-14 deficit into a 28-27 deficit with 5:01 left in the half.
Back-to-back treys from Zablotny and Travis pushed FSC's lead back out to six at 33-27, but the Eagles would respond with an 13-11 run to trim the Mocs lead to 46-42 with 42 seconds left in the opening half. Williams, though, woud hit a trey with 24 seconds left to push the Mocs lead back out to seven at 49-42 at the half.
The Mocs were outrebounded, 42-32 and committed 17 turnovers that led to 23 Eagle points. FSC was also outscored 38-16 in the paint on the night.
After shooting over 50 percent from the field and 60 percent from the 3-point line in the first half, the Mocs shooting cooled in the second half as they finished the game shooting 48 percent from the floor and 49 percent (16-for-33) from the 3-point line.
ERAU shot 47 percent from the field and 40 percent (12-for-30) from the 3-point line in the win.
Both teams were strong at the free throw line as Mocs finished the night 16-for-18 (89 percent) from the line and the Eagles were 18-for-20 (90 percent) from the stripe.
FSC will return to SSC play next week as they close the regular season with two league games. The Mocs, who are currently in fifth place in the league standings with a 5-9 record, will begin the final week of the regular season with a 7:30 p.m. game on Wednesday, Feb. 24 in St. Petersburg against 24th-ranked Eckerd and then will conclude the regular season with a 7:30 p.m. game on Saturday, Feb. 28 against Nova Southeastern on Senior Night at Jenkins Field House. Eckerd earned an 84-70 win earlier this season in Lakeland, while the Mocs picked up an 84-79 win over the Sharks on Jan. 16 in a game that was shown on ESPN3 as part of the Division II National Game of the Package.
"We have to go out and play with a chip on our shoulder, play angry, whatever you want to call it on Wednesday night because we're battling for our season," Donnelly stated. "We have two games left. We have to go on the road and play a really good Eckerd team and we have got to step up to the challenge."
