LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Southern College men's basketball put on a show on senior night to cap off the regular season Wednesday night. The Moccasins outlasted the Embry-Riddle Eagles, who are ranked 24th in the latest D2SIDA poll, 99-93 inside Streamline Sale Arena at the George W. Jenkins Field House.
"Unbelievable game," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly opened. "Atmosphere was great, a great game to be a part of and I am really proud and happy for our seniors. Especially,
E.J. Dambreville scoring his 1,000th point tonight on such a tough shot that we just needed the ball to go in, and he made a big-time shot for us."
Florida Southern ends the regular season with a 15-13 overall record and 12-8 mark in the Sunshine State Conference where the Moccasins finished no worse than fourth place in the standings and will host for the first round of the SSC tournament.
The Mocs' seniors put on a show for the crowd inside Jenkins Field House as
E.J. Dambreville led the way with 26 points, which pushed him into an elite club of 1,000-point scorers. The Dorchester, Mass. native became the 25th player in program history to eclipse the mark in a Moccasin jersey. Dambreville stands at 1,003 points heading into the postseason.
Xavier Rhodes also jumped in the senior spotlight scoring a new career-high 25 points in the win going 9-of-13 from the field.
Jack Casale,
DeAndre Campbell,
Luke Anderson, and
Wes Bongiorni all added double-figures with 15, 11, 11, and 10, respectively to close out the night.
Pierce Kiesler added one point to make up the 99 total points.
Donnelly added, "Xavier and E.J. played like all-conference guys tonight, they were terrific. We are really happy, celebrate it tonight, then we will have time to rest and get ready for the playoffs."
Dambreville and Anderson wrapped up the regular season with double-doubles as Dambreville hauled in a game-high 16 boards with Anderson tallying 10.
Through the first six minutes of action, the game was tightly contested which featured both teams holding a part of the lead. Embry-Riddle (21-7, 14-5 SSC) would string some runs together and push out to a 13-point advantage, 22-9, before Florida Southern closed the gap to just one on a fastbreak three-pointer from
Luke Anderson, 30-29 ERAU. The Mocs ran out to an eight-point lead with 1:37 to play and held a five-point lead at the break, 43-38.
FSC held the lead and extended it to double-digits a few times over the first 16 minutes of the second half before the Eagles cut the deficit to one, 74-73 with 4:32 remaining in regulation. With rights to host on the line, Florida Southern saw two quick bursts to five-point leads, 78-73, and against 80-75 with
Xavier Rhodes and
DeAndre Campbell pushing the Red and White ahead. Both teams would hold leads in the final 20-seconds of regulation where a jumper in the paint by Romeo Crouch (ERAU) tied the game at 83 as the horn sounded.
A quick start by Florida Southern in the extra period saw an eight-point swing, 91-83, on the board for the home team where
Jack Casale,
Xavier Rhodes, and
E.J. Dambreville all contributed in the quick run. Embry-Riddle would chip away and get within two points twice but Florida Southern held on outscoring the Eagles 16-10 in the overtime period.
Up Next
Florida Southern will look forward to the SSC tournament and host the first round on March 1 inside the Streamline Sale Arena at George W. Jenkins Field House.
