Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern and Nova Southeastern knew coming into Saturday evening's game that a win by either one of them would guarantee them the No. 5 seed and match-up at No. 4 seed Saint Leo in this week's upcoming Sunshine State Conference Tournament.
At the end of the night on Saturday, it was Nova Southeastern that earned that victory and the No. 5 seed in the SSC Tournament as they used a 47-21 edge on the glass and a 33-12 advantage at the free throw line en route to posting a 90-84 victory over the Moccasins on Senior Night at Jenkins Field House.
Prior to beginning of Saturday's game, the reigning National Champion Moccasins (10-18 overall, 5-11 SSC) honored its four member senior class in a pregame ceremony. The four seniors this year are guard Melique Hill (Tampa, Fla.), guard Alex McClanahan (Maitland, Fla.), guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) and guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.). Three of the four seniors have been in the program for four years, while Travis joined the team prior to the start of last season after transferring from Iowa Central Community College.
While Nova Southeastern earned a the No. 5 seed and date on Wednesday at No. 4 seed Saint Leo in the SSC Tournament, FSC fell to the No. 8 seed with the loss and will travel to Miami Shores for a 7:30 p.m. game on Wednesday, March 2 against No. 1 seed Barry (21-5 overall, 12-4 SSC). Barry earned the No. 1 seed after collecting an 82-69 win Saturday at home against 20th-ranked Eckerd and then winning a tiebreaker over both Eckerd and Rollins, who all ended the regular season with identical 12-4 conference marks.
"Barry is a really good team and is someone that the last time we played them really took it to us," Moccasin head coach Mike Donnelly said. "We're disappointed we didn't win the game tonight, but it on to March Madness now and it is a new season for us. The past is in the past and is all we can we do is focus on what's in front of us and that is preparing to play Barry on Wednesday."
The No. 8 seed for the Mocs is its worst in the SSC Tournament since earning the No. 9 seed in 2006, which ironically was the last season that the Mocs finished the year with a losing record. In 2006, FSC posted an 8-20 record in former coach Linc Darner's first season at the helm of the Mocs.
In Saturday's game against Nova Southeastern, the Mocs hit 16 treys, including 10 in the first half, but were undone by its inability to rebound and play defense as they closed the regular season losing its last three games.
"That's a recipe for disaster," Donnelly said following the loss. "The only reason why it was a six-point game was because we hit some 3's. I can't tell you how many times this year we've hit an incredible amount of threes - I'm talking like 15, 16, 17, 18 3's - and we've lost. We're just not guarding, we're not defending without fouling and we're not rebounding and that's been a major issue, not just tonight, but all season."
On the season, the Mocs are one of the top three-point shooting teams in Division II as they entered Saturday's game fourth in Division in made treys per game (11.8) and has now connected on 335 of its 885 3-pointers this season. FSC is now just 24 treys shy of tying the single season school record of 359 made 3-pointers set by last season's national championship team.
After watching the Sharks (11-15, 6-10 SSC) hit 50 percent of its shots from both the field and long distance in the first half en route to taking a 42-38 lead at the half, NSU was even hotter from the field after halftime as they outscored the Mocs, 48-46 and shot 62 percent from the floor and was 4-for-8 (50 percent) from the 3-point line. In addition, they were also 18-for-22 from the foul line on the second half.
Despite that hot shooting from the Sharks, the Mocs had chances on the night to earn the win and send its seniors out winners.
Junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa.) gave the Mocs an 81-80 lead with 1:24 left in the game after hitting his sixth and final trey of the night. Zablotny's trey came 24 seconds after Nick Pendergast gave NSU an 80-78 lead following two free throws.
Zablotny's trey wouldn't hold up as NSU's ensuing possession, Pendergast drilled a triple with 56 seconds left to give the Sharks an 83-81 lead. Pendergast's trey came on its third shot attempt of the possession thanks to two straight offensive rebounds by Harrison Goodrick, who pulled down as many rebounds (21) as the Mocs had as a team for the game.
Pendergast's trey helped ignite a 6-0 run by the Sharks to push its lead to 86-81 with 16 seconds remaining. Chris Page would seal the victory by hitting four consecutive free throws in the final nine seconds of the game. The win was the first for the Sharks against the Mocs in Lakeland since earning a 73-68 victory on Jan. 31, 2007. NSU had lost 10 straight games in the series in Lakeland prior to Saturday's victory.
"Our defense has been our Achilles' heel all year," said Travis, who scored 20 points and added six boards, eight assists and four steals in the loss. "We've got to figure out a way to get those 50/50 balls and get stops if we want to advance in the conference tournament."
Along with Travis' 20 points, Zablotny led the way for the Mocs with a game high 27 points, which was one off his career high of 28 set earlier this season Florida Tech. In two games this season against the Sharks, Zablotny is averaging 25 points per game.
The third double-digit scorer for the Mocs was Williams as he finished with 11 points on the night and has now scored 1,251 points in 122 games as a Moccasin.
FSC got the scoring started early as McClanahan, who made his first career start on Senior Night, drilled a trey in the opening 31 seconds of the game to help jump start an 8-0 run by the Mocs. That run seemed to ignite the Sharks as they scored 23 of next 27 points to push out to a 23-12 lead with 10:10 left in the opening half.
The Mocs, though, would answer as they used a 26-13 run over the next seven-plus minutes to turn an 11 point deficit into a 38-36 lead following a trey from Zablotny. FSC's run was aided by eight 3-pointers, including four from Zablotny and three from Travis as those two combined to score 21 of FSC's 26 points.
NSU would close half on a 6-0 run to take its 42-38 lead at break.
In the second half, the game was tied seven times.
Page led the way for the Sharks with 26 points, while Goodrick added 15 points to go along with his 21 rebounds. Pendergast added 12 points and Pat Huffine chipped in with 12 points off the bench. Troy Spears was the fifth Shark in double figures as he had 11 points in the win.
Along with hitting 16 treys on the night, the Mocs also stayed within striking distance of the Sharks thanks to forcing 23 turnovers for the game. Those 25 turnovers led to 25 points by the Mocs. FSC committed just eight turnovers for the game.
FSC finished the game shooting 41 percent from the field and 40 percent (16-for-40) from downtown. In addition, FSC was just 10-for-12 at the free throw line.
NSU shot 55 percent from the field and 50 percent from the 3-point line as they hit 10 of their 20 3-point attempts for the game. The Sharks were also 26-for-33 (78.8 percent) from the charity stripe.
FSC and Barry split their season series as the Mocs collected a 74-72 win over the Buccaneers in its SSC opener in Lakeland on Nov. 18 and then suffered a 101-63 loss in Miami Shores on Jan. 27. In that game, the Mocs were outrebounded, 60-32 and played without Travis and sophomore forward R.J. June (Sanford, Fla.), who both out of the game due to injuries.
Here is the complete SSC Men's Basketball Tournament Schedule
Wednesday, March 2 - Quarterfinals (Campus Sites)
#8 seed Florida Southern (10-18, 5-11) at #1 seed Barry (21-5, 12-4), 7:30 p.m.
#5 seed Nova Southeastern (11-15, 6-10) at #4 seed Saint Leo (18-10, 10-6), 7 p.m.
#7 seed Florida Tech (14-14, 5-11) at #2 seed Eckerd (22-6, 12-4), 7 p.m.
#6 seed Lynn (12-14, 6-10) at #3 seed Rollins (21-7, 12-4), 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 5 - Semifinals (ICI Center - Daytona Beach)
Semifinal #1 - FSC/Barry winner vs. NSU/SLU winner, 12 p.m.
Semifinal #2 - Florida Tech/Eckerd winner vs. Lynn/Rollins winner, 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 6 - Championship (ICI Center - Daytona Beach)
Semifinal #1 winner vs. Semifinal #2 winner, 1 p.m.
Click here for a complete SSC men's Basketball Tournament Bracket
