Mocs Drop the Saints in the Season Opener

LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Southern College Men's Basketball opened the year with a 96-80 win over Flagler College, who received votes in the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) Preseason Poll, in George W. Jenkins Field House in game four of the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.
 
Florida Southern (1-0) won the rebounding and turnover battle with Flagler (0-1) hauling in 49 team rebounds, led by redshirt senior E.J. Dambreville and redshirt sophomore Luke Anderson with 15 and 11, respectively. Dambreville added 24 points for the Moccasins behind redshirt sophomore Jadin Booth's career-high of 28 points. Anderson added eight points and seven assists on the night.
 
Booth, a native of Omaha, Neb., scored 28 points in 37 minutes of action on nine made shots with four three's while adding a 6-for-7 mark from the free throw line. Booth chipped in five rebounds, two steals, and one assist.
 
Redshirt sophomore Wes Bongiorni joined Booth in a career-day, while the duo joined Dambreville in double-digits as well with 18 points for the Mocs in 25 minutes of action while hauling in six rebounds, three steals, and had one assist. The Baton Rouge, La. native was a defensive presence for Southern where he led the team with five fouls drawn. Bongiorni locked down Flagler's top first-half performer, Jaylen Lemons, holding the guard to just six second-half points.
 
Florida Southern registered 22 points off 17 Saint turnovers while also outscoring the Flagler bench 16-6, behind redshirt sophomore Dominick Denny's 11 points in nearly 18 minutes of play.
 
Flagler got nearly all offense from four players, having double-digit performances, led by Jaylen Lemons with a team-high 22 points. Malik Bryant joined in with 20 points while Kyle Young added 18 and Chase Fiddler had 11.
 
Florida Southern started the new campaign off with two early points from Jadin Booth with a pair of free throws before the two teams battled through the first three minutes of action tight to a Flagler 5-4 lead. The Saints added to that, 8-4 with 17:29 to go before the Mocs pushed the tempo and tied things at 11. Booth capped a Mocs' run that pushed the lead for Southern to seven with 11 to play, 21-14.
 
The Saints would rally and tie things with a 7-0 run of their own (21-21) before Dominick Denny finished off another run from the Mocs made it 30-23 (7:09). Despite Florida Southern leading 39-32 with under four minutes to play, a pair of threes down the stretch of the first half closed the gap to 41-38 in favor of Florida Southern.
 
Flagler made it interesting early in the second half with a quick layup, cutting it to just one, 41-40, but the pressure would quickly die from the Saints as Florida Southern pushed to a double-digit lead, 55-45. The Mocs would hold a three-possession advantage for the remainder of the game, but not without the Saints getting within seven multiple times over the final 15 minutes of action.
 
The Mocs would see their largest lead of the game, 18 points, come at the hands of Denny with a layup at 2:44. Booth finished the game like he started, in the scoring column as he made the games final bucket, a three-pointer to bring the contest to it's 96-80 final.
 
Florida Southern will return to action quickly for its second game of the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic with a matchup with No. 5 West Texas A&M, a 5:45 p.m. tip inside George W. Jenkins Field House. 


 
 

Take a listen to @FSC_MBB head coach Mike Donnelly and players Jadin Booth and E.J. Dambreville on the big win over Flagler in the postgame press conference! #LetsGoMocs pic.twitter.com/QTZr5KW84X

— Florida Southern Mocs (@FSC_Mocs) November 6, 2022

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