Box Score ST. PETERSBURG - Florida Southern's second half rally fell short here Wednesday evening as the Moccasins suffered an 84-72 setback to 20th-ranked Eckerd in Sunshine State Conference action at the McArthur Center.
With the setback, the reigning national champion Moccasins fell to 10-17 overall and 5-10 in the SSC, while Eckerd improved to 22-5 overall and 12-3 in the SSC. The victory sealed at least a share of the SSC regular season title for the Tritons.
"Eckerd is a great defensive team and the one thing they did well tonight was convert on broken plays," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said following his team's final road game of the regular season. "I am proud of our guys for battling, never quitting and playing hard, but we fell short and weren't good enough."
The Mocs, who trailed 52-40 just six minutes into the second half, used a 16-9 run keyed by a combined seven points apiece from senior guards Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) and Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) to pull within 61-56 with 8:17 left in the game.
Williams scored 22 of his game high 28 points in the second half, while Travis scored 10 of his 21 points after halftime. Those two players combined to score 32 of FSC's 42 second half points to keep the Mocs in the game.
With his 28 points, Williams moved within 40 points of Andy Robertson for 15th on the school's career scoring chart. Robertson scored 1,280 points as a Moccasin from 1994-97.
After Eckerd scored eight of the next 10 points to push its lead to 69-58 with 4:09 remaining in the game, the Mocs made another run as they scored six of next nine points thanks to treys from Williams and Travis to push the Mocs within eight at 72-64 with 2:30 remaining.
That would be as close as the Mocs would get, though, as Eckerd would connect on 10 consecutive free throws over the final two-plus minutes to seal its win. On the night, Eckerd finished 17-for-21 (81 percent) from the line.
Eckerd entered the game eighth in the SSC in free throw shooting at 66.4 percent on the season. The Tritons are averaging a little over 26 free throw attempts per game.
"One of the things Eckerd hasn't been good at this season is shooting free throws and we kept them off the line in the first half, but give credit to them, in the second half, they stepped to line and made their free throws," said Donnelly. "They've a very hard team to beat, but when they hit free throws like they did tonight, it makes it even harder."
While Eckerd shot 21 free throws on the night, including 17 of them in the second half, the Mocs went to the line a season low tying three times and was 2-for-3 at the line. All of which came after halftime.
The Tritons, who swept the season series from the Mocs for the first time since the 2006-07 season, had five players in double figures in the win, including Trevon Young scoring 16 points off the bench. Kevin Walsh and Obi Kyei each had 13 points, while Ray Darnell added 12 points and Jerrick Stevenson had 10 points in the victory.
One of Eckerd's biggest advantages in Wednesday's game was on the boards as the Tritons outrebounded the Mocs, 43-31, including a 24-14 edge on the boards in the first half.
Kyei led the way with 10 boards for Eckerd, while freshman forward Jarel Spellman (Richmond, Va.) led the Mocs with eight boards and blocked six shots in the loss. Spellman has now blocked five or more shots in 10 games, including five times in his last six games. Spellman has now blocked 88 shots on the season and is within four blocks of tying Innocent Kere for second on the school's single season block chart as Kere blocked 92 shots during the 1998-99 season.
"They wore us down on the boards," Donnelly added.
In the opening half, Eckerd jumped out to an 11 point lead at 31-20 with 4:29 remaining in the half, before the Mocs closed the half on a 10-5 run to cut Eckerd's lead to 36-30 at halftime. The Mocs run began with a trey from Travis and capped the run with a basket from Spellman with 17 seconds remaining.
The Mocs shot 40 percent from the field and 32 percent (12-for-37) from the 3-point line. In fact, nearly half of Florida Southern's shots in the game came from behind the 3-point line, including 21 of its 36 field goal attempts in the first half coming from downtown.
Meanwhile, Eckerd shot 45 percent from the field and 32 percent from long distance on the night. The Tritons also held a 40-20 edge in points in the paint.
The Mocs will close out the 2015-16 regular season on Saturday, Feb. 27 as they host Nova Southeastern (10-15 overall, 5-10 SSC) in a 7:30 p.m. Senior Night game at Jenkins Field House. FSC earned an 84-79 win over the Sharks in Davie on Jan. 16.
Saturday's game with Nova Southeastern will mark the final home game of the Moccasins' four seniors - Travis, Williams, guard Melique Hill (Tampa, Fla.) and Alex McClanahan (Maitland, Fla.).
