LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Southern College men's basketball battled back in the second half to force overtime, where the Moccasins fell 99-90 to Saint Leo Wednesday night in Sunshine State Conference action in Streamline Sale Arena at the George W. Jenkins Field House.
"Very difficult loss for us, but our time is coming,"
Mike Donnelly stated after the game. "Obviously, it's very disappointing to not execute at the very end of regulation, but there are so many more positive things that we will take away from this game and that's how we will continue to get better moving forward."
Donnelly added, "I've been fortunate to coach championship teams, and we have started to show the fight, toughness and resiliency needed to compete at a high level."
E.J. Dambreville led Florida Southern (6-10, 3-5 SSC) on the night with a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds while Deandre Campbell,
Xavier Rhodes, and
Olafur Gunnlaugsson each notched double-figures with 18, 17, and 15 points, respectively.
Wes Bongiorni led the Moccasins in rebounding with 13 boards, six offensive. The Mocs tallied 30 second-chance points on the night off 21 offensive boards. The difference in the game came at the free-throw line where Florida Southern made nine of the 13 attempts and Saint Leo (6-8, 2-5 SSC) made 14 of its 20.
Florida Southern battled back to cut the Saint Leo deficit to just five at the halftime break, 46-41. Despite falling behind by double-digits early, the Moccasins wouldn't give up and battled back in the second half to bring the game to within one possession with 12 minutes to play, 67-64. FSC used offensive rebounds and second-chance points to whittle away at the gap in the score.
Wes Bongiorni and
Jadin Booth teamed up for a steal to find a cutting Deandre Campbell for an easy layup which would tie the game at 69-69. Florida Southern would fall behind by seven, 76-69, before another run to tie things at 76 and take the lead at 77-76 on a pair of
Xavier Rhodes free throws. Up three, 83-80 with 49-ticks left, Saint Leo would use an inside layup to cut it to one before
E.J. Dambreville went 1-for-2 from the line to make it back to a one-point game. The Lions would see Francis Sio go 2-for-2 from the free-throw line to tie the game at 84-84. Campbell would drive down the court with seven seconds left and saw his last-second three-pointer glance off the glass sending the game to overtime.
Saint Leo used a 15-6 overtime period to come away with a 99-90 final Wednesday night. The Lions used two quick threes from Wade Coomer to open up a gap but Rhodes cut through the paint and laid it in to bring it to a 90-86 contest. The Lions outscored the Mocs 9-4 over the final 3:19 to bring the game to its 99-90 finale.
Up Next
Florida Southern returns to action Saturday when the Moccasins host No. 3/3 Nova Southeastern at 7:30 p.m.
