DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Florida Southern College men's basketball traveled to Daytona Beach to open up the 2022 calendar year with a midweek Sunshine State Conference matchup against no. 22/17 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Fla.). The Moccasins dropped a 113-89 decision to the Eagles inside the ICI Center.
Tarik Mckelphin led the Mocs in scoring with 19 points, his top performance in the Red and White.
"We never accept defeat and we don't believe in moral victories," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly commented following the game. "But, I was proud of how our guys battled tonight. The game got away from us in the last three to four minutes, so the final score is a little misleading. Our group has had to deal with a ton of adversity, and I know how much they want to win."
Donnelly added, "We hope we are able to establish better momentum with practice time and game planning soon, which will really help us execute much better moving forward."
Mckelphin finished the night going 7-for-11 from the field including a 2-for-3 evening from beyond the arc and a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe. The Plant City, Fla. native was joined by
Jack Casale,
E.J. Dambreville, and
Dominick Denny in double-figures as all Mocs that played in the game scored at least four points.
The redshirt freshman
Dominick Denny scored a career-best 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and a 2-for-4 mark from downtown with one free throw. Casale dropped his second straight 18-point performance going 6-for-11 from beyond the arc while Dambreville notched 13 on the night. Dambreville led the team in rebounding with eight.
Florida Southern (5-9, 2-4 SSC) as a team shot .471 from the field (33-70) and .333 (11-33) from beyond the arc while going .667 (12-18) from the free-throw line.
Embry-Riddle's (12-3, 4-1 SSC) five starters scored in double-figures led by Romeo Crouch with 29 points, ahead of Chris Murray's breakout performance of 22 points.
The two teams played to a tight battle through the first six minutes of action, but the Eagles broke out to a seven-point advantage, 17-10 with 13:27 to play in the opening half. After falling behind by eight, the Mocs would cut it to just three on an old-fashion three-point play by
Tarik Mckelphin with nine minutes to play with the layup and free throw, 26-23. Embry-Riddle would close the half strong and take a 10-point lead into the break, 46-36.
A quick three to open the half by Mckelphin brought the score to just single digits, 46-39, but the momentum quickly shifted back into the hands of the home team and Florida Southern would find itself down by double-digits with just under nineteen minutes to go in regulation. The Mocs would chip away at the double-digit deficit and cut it to single digits four times, as close as eight over the final stretch as the Eagles went on for a 113-89 final.
Up Next
The Moccasins remain on the road with a short trip to St. Petersburg on Jan. 8 with a 4 p.m. tip with the Eckerd Tritons.
