LAKELAND, Fla. – No. 22/19 Florida Southern College Men's Basketball slipped away from the visiting Lynn University Fighting Knights in a Sunshine State Conference matchup at the Streamline Sale Court inside George W. Jenkins Field House Thursday night. The Moccasins saw five players score in double-figures led by redshirt sophomore
Jadin Booth's 25 points while redshirt sophomore
Tray Alexander notched his first double-double in the red and white in the final game of 2022.
"I'm happy with the win, but I know we can play a lot better," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly stated. "We struggled finding our rhythm in the first half, but we did a better job playing with more purpose and energy in the second half."
The Moccasins earned their 10
th win of the year, and fourth in SSC play after pulling away from the Fighting Knights (2-8, 0-5 SSC). Booth led the Moccasins in scoring with 25 points, his sixth 20-point game of the season, on 7-of-16 shooting from the field while adding a perfect 8-for-8 night from the free throw line.
Four others joined Booth in double-digits with freshman
Donovan Smith coming off the bench, providing 16 second half points, going 4-for-4 from beyond the arc while adding a floater in the paint. Smith, a native of St. Paul, Minn., added a pair of free throws to his scoring tally while recording two steals and grabbing three rebounds.
Donnelly added, "
Donovan Smith gave us a huge lift off the bench tonight, and we executed once again from the free throw line which really helped us build a double-digit lead and secure our 10th win of the season."
Along with Smith, redshirt senior
E.J. Dambreville added 15 points and nine rebounds, redshirt sophomore
Luke Anderson tallied 12 points while redshirt sophomore
Wes Bongiorni had 10 points and seven rebounds. Freshman
Alex Steen and junior
Connor Raines closed out the scoring with four and three points, respectively.
Lynn's Jimel Lane had a game-high 30 points while Nordin Kapic and Esteban Lluberes had 19 and 10 points, respectively, to round out double-digit scorers. Kapic finished just shy of his double-double with nine boards.
Florida Southern opened the game with a 10-2 run before Lynn closed the gap to just four points by the first media timeout, 13-9. The Fighting Knights claimed their first and only leads of the night at the 13:58 and 12:53 marks, of just one point, 14-13 and 17-16, before the Moccasins pulled away with an 11-0 run to push it to double-digits. A Esteban Lluberes layup for Lynn pulled the game to within four late, 40-36, which served as the halftime score in favor of Florida Southern.
A back and forth few minutes of the second half saw Lynn get within two, 40-38 and 42-40, but Florida Southern pulled away with a 9-1 run to extend out to a 10-point advantage, 51-41, with 16:43 to play. Lynn wouldn't go away and got within seven points, before
Donovan Smith went 4-for-4 from downtown over a span of 3:47 to help keep the Mocs out in front, including extending it to a nine-point game at 9:07, 72-63.
Jadin Booth's 20th point of the night came at the free throw line to push the Mocs up by 13 with seven minutes to play, 78-65. Florida Southern would eventually pull out to a 17-point lead, 86-69 and 88-71, and go on for the 16-point win with a
Tray Alexander free throw bringing the games scoring to a close at 95-79.
Up Next
No. 22/19 Florida Southern will travel to No. 2/2 Nova Southeastern (11-0, 4-0 SSC) for a New Year's brawl in the shark tank of Rick Case Arena on January 1 at 4:00 p.m.
