LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Southern College men's basketball dropped a 100-70 Sunshine State Conference matchup with the 25
th-ranked Barry University Buccaneers Saturday in the Streamline Sale Arena at the George W. Jenkins Field House.
Jadin Booth and
Luke Anderson led the Mocs in the game with 12 points as Florida Southern moves to 7-12, 4-7 SSC. As a squad, FSC shot 73-percent, 22-for-30 from the free-throw line led Anderson, Booth,
Dominick Denny, and
Tarik Mckelphin who all went perfect from the free-throw line. Anderson made all six of his attempts as Denny and Booth 4-for-4 and Mckelphin 2-for-2.
"Bad night obviously for us. Credit to Barry," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly commented after the game. "They are are very good team and a very challenging match up for us. We couldn't get any rhythm going at either end of the floor. Disappointing, but this is not the time of year to dwell on a bad loss. We have a big week ahead and need to prepare to play Florida Tech Wednesday night."
The Buccaneers improve to 13-3, 8-3 SSC on the year as Michael Schaefer led Barry with 30 points, including an 11-for-16 mark from the free-throw line.
In the opening half, the two teams played a tightly contested period. Both squads played back-and-forth basketball before Barry jumped to a five-point lead, 10-5, and then up 13-6 with 15:34 to play. Florida Southern battled back with back-to-back buckets from
Wes Bongiorni, a layup and a dunk, along with a three-pointer from
Dominick Denny to tie things at 13.
The Buccaneers quickly battled out to another four-point lead but the Mocs wouldn't back down and erased and tied that before grinding out to a 21-19 lead on a jumper from
E.J. Dambreville. Both teams again would battle for the next 10 minutes and share the lead before Barry reached out to a six-point advantage, 35-29, before extending it to 41-33 at the break.
Barry quickly pushed it to 10 at the start of the half but with free throws from
Xavier Rhodes and Tarike Mckelphin, the Mocs cut it to nine early. Florida Southern would fight hard in the second half, but the Bucs would control the game and go on for the 100-70 final.
Up Next
Florida Southern will remain at home and welcome in Florida Tech on Jan. 26 for a 7:30 p.m. tip.
