Box Score LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 6 Florida Southern College men's basketball team exploded for 112 points tonight, in a 112-82 win visiting Florida Tech on Saturday night. The Mocs improve to 21-2, including 13-2 in the Sunshine State Conference, while Tech drops to 10-13, and 4-11 in the SSC. The Mocs remain in first place in the SSC, a half game ahead of No. 5 Nova Southeastern, who is 12-2 in the SSC.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Mocs jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, at 17:21 of the first half. Senior forward Jack Rauch, junior forward Jalyn Hinton, and senior forward Brett Hanson all made baskets in that stretch.
- Minutes later, Rauch would drain a three-pointer at the 13:09 mark, to increase the Mocs lead to six points, at 17-11. The Panthers would rally, and eventually tie the score at 19-19, at 11:50.
- Minutes later, with Florida Tech up by one, Hanson hit a triple, followed by baskets from Hinton, and sophomore guard E.J. Dambreville put the Mocs back on top, 32-26.
- At the 3:54 mark, the score was tied once again, this time at 41 points apiece. From there, Southern would go on a definitive 14-3 run to end the half. First Hinton slammed home a dunk, followed by a steal and fast break layup by sophomore guard Xavier Rhodes, and a Rauch putback started the run. After a basket by Tech, senior guard Jair Rodgers made back-to-back three's, before Hanson drove the lane for a layup with five seconds remaining in the half, to set the score at 55-44 at the break.
- In those first 20 minutes, Rauch had 14 points and seven rebounds, while Hanson added 13 points.
- The second half proved to be all Florida Southern all the time. The lead first swelled to 15 points, when Hanson hit a jumper in the lane at the 16:50 mark.
- The lead would extend to 20 points at the 5:48 mark, when Rauch made a short jumper to make the score 88-68.
- The next milestone for the Mocs was the century mark, which was eclipsed with 2:26 to go, when sophomore Pierce Kiesler made a long-range three pointer, making the score 101-76.
- With 30 seconds remaining, the lead would touch 30 points, when junior guard Jacob Schner made a three-pointer, for the game's final score, as the Mocs would win 112-82.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- The Mocs scored over 50 points in each half tonight. In all, nine different Mocs scored, led by Rauch's 29. Hanson added 17, with Hinton adding 16, and Rodgers and junior forward Brandon Carroll adding 13 apiece.
- For the game, Southern shot 59.5% from the field, while holding Tech to 38.8% shooting.
- Southern dominated down low, outscoring Tech 58-34 in the paint.
- The Runnin' Mocs were at it again, this time scoring 28 fast break points.
- The Mocs had 32 assists on 44 makes, led by Rhodes, who had eight assists.
- Defensively, Carroll and Hinton each had five blocked shots.
- Rauch added a team-high 13 rebounds, giving him Southern's only double-double.
- Hanson added 17 points, and now has 2,058 points for his illustrious career, the third-highest total in school history. He has also tallied 796 rebounds, good for seventh in the program's record book. His 204 steals are good for seventh, while his assist total of 406 ranks ninth.
UP NEXT
Southern will complete a two-date home stand, as the Rollins College Tars will come to Lakeland on Wednesday night. After that, the Mocs head to face Nova Southeastern next Saturday. That game on February 15, will be broadcast by ESPN exclusively on ESPN.com and the ESPN app. Division II is in its second year of its current regular season media agreement, where the division streams 18 basketball games exclusively on ESPN3 through ESPN.com and the ESPN App. Eighteen additional basketball games and 6-10 other sports are streamed in a hybrid model that consists of online distribution and could involve local TV.
