LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern College men's basketball team fell 96-77 to the Rollins College Tars Friday afternoon in a Sunshine State Conference matchup inside the Streamline Sale Arena at the George W. Jenkins Field House.
"We had a different game plan," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly stated post game. "We needed things to go our way for us to really have a fighting chance. We needed to shoot the ball better, and instead of making 15 three's, we probably needed 19; our margin of error was a lot smaller. On the other side, we needed Rollins to be off, which they weren't. They did a really good job of executing and making open shots."
Donnelly continued, "it was just one of the games that is frustrating but in the second half,we played with a lot more confidence, and that's all we ask of our guys is to play with confidence."
Jack Casale led Florida Southern (5-8, 2-3 SSC) with 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc. The Moccasins saw three others add double-figures behind Casale's team-high in
DeAndre Campbell, 16,
Xavier Rhodes, 14, and
Tarik Mckelphin, 13. Seven of the eight Mocs dressed for the game scored a point with
Jacob Schner and
Dominick Denny at seven with
Trey Jones at two.
Rollins (7-6, 2-3 SSC) saw Hutton Yenor lead the way with 24 points, just ahead of Kyle Marion with 22. Brooks Cluxton notched a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
After falling behind Rollins 4-0, the Mocs raced out to a 5-4 lead with a Campbell layup and Schner three. Florida Southern would fall behind 25-9 with 11:04 to play, but would rally to 25-21 with four straight three-pointers, from Campbell, two, Mckelphin and Denny, to get within four with under eight minutes to play. The Tars would push the pace on the shorthanded Mocs and run out to a halftime lead of 48-30.
The Mocs opened up the second half and outscored the Tars 14-8 to cut it to a deficit of 12, 56-44. Rollins would push its lead out to 21, 77-56, with under 11 minutes to go before controlling the rest of the game and earn the road win over Florida Southern. The Mocs would close the game on a 9-0 run, and held the Tars to just one field goal over the final seven attempts.
Florida Southern returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 5 when the Mocs travel to Daytona Beach, Fla. for a matchup with No. 18/13 Embry-Riddle. That game is set to tip-off at 7:30 p.m.
Donnelly closed, "It's about us. We will get healthier; we have a few guys returning and hope that we stay healthy with those that played tonight. We just really have to focus on us and get ourselves situated."
