LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Southern College men's basketball would right the ship by throttling the University of Tampa 109-83 Wednesday night at Streamline Sale Court inside the George W. Jenkins Field House. An overall team effort sealed the win for the Moccasins in the Sunshine State Conference opener, paced by
Luke Anderson who tied his career-high.
"Proud of our effort," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly said after the win over Tampa. "It was good to see our guys locked in and ready to play tonight. I thought our bench was key for us, especially in the first half. We are still very much a work in progress, but I was pleased that we were able to start conference play with a big win.
Florida Southern (5-3, 1-0 SSC) saw six players score in double-figures with
Luke Anderson tying his career-high 28 points with three threes while going a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line. The Lakeland, Fla. native added six rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and one steal to his stat line.
Behind Anderson,
Alex Steen tallied 19 points on his way to securing another double-double with 10 rebounds, three blocks, and two assists.
Joe Moon IV was close behind with 18 points, edging
Erickson Bans' 14 points,
Connor Raines' 12 off the bench, and
Dominick Denny's 10.
Tyson Leitao led Tampa (3-4, 0-1 SSC) with 19 points and nine rebounds while Trae Martin added 16. Both Harp Hunter and Jesse White tallied 13 points apiece. Jaxon Toney closed out the Spartans' double-digit scores with 11 points.
Tampa jumped out to a quick lead, gathering its largest lead of four, twice, within the three minutes of action. From there, Florida Southern battled back to capture a one-point lead, 9-8, on a second-chance three-pointer from
Erickson Bans off a Spartan turnover (15:52).
The two teams traded the lead over the next four minutes to an 18-18 tie with 11:47 to go.
Luke Anderson drained a three followed by an
Alex Steen jumper after an empty Spartan possession gave Florida Southern the five-point lead, a lead the Moccasins would never relinquish.
Tampa would stay within striking distance until
Connor Raines turned the game into the Raines' show and pushed the lead to 11 with a pair of free throws, a layup, and eventually banked in a three-pointer (49-38). The Spartans would again cut the deficit, but Raines again used another three to make it 13 points before Florida Southern cruised to a 17-point halftime lead.
Florida Southern continued to push the gap between the two and controlled the second half turning the Spartans over eight more times in the second half than the first half. The Moccasins would extend their lead to the largest of the night, 109-79 (30), the last field goal for the Mocs, which was a second-chance slam dunk by
Alex Steen with 3:44 to play.
Tampa scored the game's final four points to bring the contest to its final, 109-83, and hand Florida Southern the teams' sixth straight win over the Spartans.
Florida Southern will return to the hardwood on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. as the Moccasins welcome in the Eagles of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (5-1, 0-0 SSC) for the Sunshine State Conference match-up of the year.
