LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern College men's basketball team lose 86-79 in a tough match with St. Edwards University in its last game of the Terrace Hotel Thanksgiving Classic on Saturday night in Streamline Sale Arena at the Jenkins Field House.
DeAndre Campbell scored a career-high 27 points, with 18 in the second half but Florida Southern (2-4) was unable to rally as the Hilltoppers (4-2) hold on.
Jack Casale had a double-double with 17 points to add to his 11 rebounds.
"We are a better shooting team than that, but we just couldn't get in a rhythm offensively," said head coach
Mike Donnelly. Despite the tough stretch of games, the Mocs are looking forward to their second conference battle at Florida tech. "This was a busy week for us, but we will have big week with conference week."
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
- Florida Southern was first to score from a fast break bucket by Casale two minutes into the game
- The Hilltoppers ran a 5-0 run before Tarik Mckelphin was fouled in the paint and hit both free throws with 16:20 left in the game
- At the first media timeout, the Mocs had a five point deficit (9-4)
- Casale went two-for-two at the line, down 9-6 in the game
- St. Edward's hit a 3-pointer, but Casale hit his sixth point of the game, while still down 16-8 with 12 minutes left
- Xavier Rhodes made his first bucket of the night on a driving layup, and followed up with a steal on the other end of the floor and two free throws down by six with under 10 minutes left
- Back-to-back buckets by Campbell set the score 20-16, advantage St. Edward's
- Both teams traded 3-point shots, as Casale made a shot to narrow a four point deficit
- Casale hit another 3-pointer with just under six minutes left and Mocs were only down by one
- The Hilltoppers hit a 6-0 run, but the Mocs rebounded with the team getting involved for a 35-31 game with about a minute left
- Campbell got a steal and easy bucket, but St. Edward's went into the half up 37-33
- Florida Southern ended the half shooting 12-for-35 (34 percent)
- Casale led all scorers with 12 points for Florida Southern, while Campbell was right behind with nine points
Second Half
- Babatunde Ajike got an early steal to find Mckelphin on the fast break score to start the second half
- E.J. Dambreville nailed a 3-pointer and Casale followed up with a layup to tie the game at 40 with 17:20 on the clock
- Both teams traded points after Ajike hit a hook shot, but the Hilltoppers capitalized on mistakes for a 46-42 lead at the media timeout
- St. Edward's garnered a 10-point lead with 15:24 left, which Luke Anderson responded with a big board and put-back score
- Campbell hit a score and made one free throw, down 54-47 with 12:48 on the clock
- Continuing with a strong second half performance, Campbell kept it himself to keep the Mocs down by just seven with 11:08 left
- Florida Southern were within four, but the Hilltoppers racked up a 10 point lead with 8:46 on the clock
- After he was fouled shooting three, Campbell hit two free throws to put the Mocs within five
- Mckelphin and Casale hit big shots to put the Mocs within reach in 73-67 Hilltoppers advantage
- The teams traded points but St. Edward's stayed on top 79-73 with 1:26 left in the game
- A steal by the Mocs found Mckelphin on the end for layup down by four with under a minute left
- St. Edward's hit a 3-pointer to extend their lead to a 82-75 score with 17 seconds left
- The Hilltoppers held on for the win 86-79
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- St. Edward's outrebounded Florida Southern 49-38.
- The Mocs ended up shooting 42 percent from the field (30-for-72) and connected on five 3-pointers.
- Four Mocs had double digit points with Campbell leading the pack with 27, Casale with 17, and Dambreville and Mckelphin with 11 and 10 points respectively.
- After a tough first half shooting, Florida Southern hit 48.6 percent of their shots in the second half bringing the score within reach
UP NEXT
Florida Southern will travel to Melbourne to face Florida Tech for their second conference game of the season on Wednesday, December 1
st, set for a 7:30 PM tipoff.
