LAKELAND, Fla. – No. 16 Florida Southern College Men's Basketball rallied late to cut the deficit but came up just short to the visiting Post University Eagles Saturday night, 87-83, in the Moccasins' first game of the Terrace Hotel Christmas Classic at Streamline Sale Court in the George W. Jenkins Field House.
"Not difficult to pinpoint the reason why we fell short tonight," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly stated. "We got out worked on the glass and got beat with broken plays – tips, loose balls, deflections. Post made us pay and did a great job converting second-and-third-chance opportunities."
Donnelly added, "I thought we were a step slow most of the night, but all the credit in the world goes to Post University. Coach Kuntz and his staff did a great job preparing his team for this game. His team played really hard and played with a ton of poise and composure. It's definitely disappointing, but we need to move on quickly and get ready to play Fort Lauderdale tomorrow night. We need to be ready to compete and ready to play as hard as possible."
Redshirt sophomore
Luke Anderson paced Florida Southern (8-2) in scoring Saturday with 20 points going 6-for-7 from the field including a 3-for-4 mark from beyond the arc. The Lakeland, Fla. native added a 5-for-6 night from the free throw line while finishing the night with two rebounds, one assist and one block in 30 minutes of action.
Four other Moccasins joined Anderson in double-digits with redshirt senior
E.J. Dambreville and redshirt sophomore
Wes Bongiorni at 16 points apiece, redshirt sophomore's
Jadin Booth and
Tray Alexander added 14 and 11, respectively. Dambreville nearly missed a double-double, hauling in a game-high nine rebounds, seven on the defensive side.
Redshirt sophomore
Trey Jones closed the scoring Mocs on the night with six points off the bench. Jones grabbed four rebounds and had one assist in his 14 minutes of action.
Post (6-5) had five players in double-figures with Tyler Small leading the charge for the Eagles with 19 points. A trio of Eagles tallied seven rebounds on the night where all three were just shy of a double-double.
The game opened with both teams trading scoring runs. Post first, before Florida Southern rallied to tie things at six, early. The Eagles would climb out to a five-point lead multiple times, but Southern never backed down tying things at 18 with 11:27 to play.
The Mocs would claim their first lead, 20-18, on a
Tray Alexander jumper before the Eagles answered with a 10-0 run for an eight-point lead. Florida Southern took another lead, 31-30, but short lived as Post pushed it to seven points with 3:16 to play, 38-31.
Trey Jones started the late run with a baseline jumper from
Jadin Booth before Booth found
Luke Anderson for his third three of the half followed by a pull-up jumper from
E.J. Dambreville, as the half ended at 38-38.
The Eagles started the second half off quick and took an eight-point lead, 49-41, but the Mocs rallied once more and cut it to three, 51-48. With 10:37 to play, Post claimed its first double-digit lead of 10 points, 63-53. Over the next eight minutes, Florida Southern outscored Post 23-14 to bring the game to within one point, 77-76 on a pair of
Luke Anderson free throws.
Down two, 83-81 with 28.9-ticks left,
Tray Alexander stole the inbounds pass and drove the lane. A contested layup wouldn't drop as Post gathered the rebound with just 20-seconds to play. Alexander would convert on a full court drive finished with a reverse layup with 4.6-seconds to go but a pair of free throws from the Eagles pushed it to a four-point game, and a last chance three fell short for Southern as the horn sounded in favor of Post, 87-83.
Up Next
No. 16 Florida Southern looks to bounce back with its final game before the holiday break at 7:30 p.m. inside Jenkins Field House against the University of Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale fell to Barry 93-86 in game one of the Mocs Christmas Classic Saturday afternoon.
