LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Southern College men's basketball defeated Barry University 114-93 at Streamline Sale Court inside the George W. Jenkins Field House, en route to securing third place in the Sunshine State Conference, and a spot in the tournament quarterfinals with hosting rights.
The Moccasins (19-8, 13-7 SSC) celebrated senior night Saturday, where the team honored
Babatunde Ajike,
Farris Kabalaoui, and
E.J. Dambreville prior to tip as well as three cheerleading seniors,
Annsley Pharris,
Ali D'Amato, and
Cassidy Schmidt.
"Great bounce-back win for us," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly exclaimed. "It's always good to play well on senior night in front of our supporters, families, and alumni. We really had it clicking offensively."
Donnelly added, "The guys shared the ball and we were able to find our rhythm at both ends of the floor. I am really happy for our seniors. Baba, Farris, and E.J. all played well tonight and it played a big role in our victory to close out the regular season."
Ajike finished the night with seven points in 10 minutes of action, shooting 100 percent from the field with a three-pointer and two layups. Kabalaoui tallied two points and two rebounds in seven minutes, too shooting 100 percent with a layup.
Dambreville notched a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds. The Dorchester, Mass. native entered the game with 1,490 career points and eclipsed the 1,500 plateau on a pair of free throws at the 6:02 mark in the first half. Dambreville heads into his final postseason with 1,512 career points, which is just shy of the top-10 in program history.
Redshirt sophomore
Jadin Booth led the team with 23 points while notching his first double-double of the season with 10 assists. Freshman
Alex Steen tallied a career-high with 21 points in 23 minutes while also grabbing eight boards for the Mocs. Redshirt sophomores
Luke Anderson and
Dominick Denny rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Red and White with 18 and 16 points, respectively.
Barry (12-13, 8-12 SSC) finished the regular season in eighth place in the conference. The Buccaneers were led by Jaron Williams who had a game-high 24 points ahead of Nick Anderson with 18, James Montgomery with 16, Tyler Hawkins with 14, and Malik Stanely with 13. Montgomery finished the contest with a double-double adding 11 rebounds to his double-digit points.
The Mocs and Bucs played a tight first seven minutes of the game before Florida Southern broke out to a nine-point advantage on a
Dominick Denny three, 20-11, but Barry worked back into it tying the game at 24's with 10:32 to play.
Florida Southern would continue to work from ahead, with Barry tying the game, before reaching the largest lead of the half of 11 points, 45-34 with over four minutes to go in the opening frame, eventually carrying a four-point lead into halftime capped off by a
Trey Jones dunk, 50-46.
A 12-2 run to start the second half by Florida Southern forced a quick Barry timeout, 64-48 FSC.
Jadin Booth drained a three-pointer at the 14:54 mark to push the Mocs ahead by 20, 71-51. Dambreville's jumper in the paint handed Florida Southern its largest lead of the game, 24 points, with 13:30 to go, 77-53.
The Buccaneers would cut the deficit to just 15 points, 102-87, but the Moccasins pushed it back to a 20-point game, 109-89, on back-to-back fastbreak plays from
Alex Steen; a dunk and a free throw as well as a reverse layup.
Babatunde Ajike finished the scoring for Florida Southern in the final 1:25 with a quick three-pointer and a layup.
Farris Kabalaoui capped the night as he grabbed the game's final rebound, a missed three-pointer with 21 ticks to play as Florida Southern went on to win the final regular season game, 114-93.
The Moccasins look to host Embry-Riddle, Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. inside the George W. Jenkins Field House. The two teams split the regular season matchups where Florida Southern won the contest in Jenkins Field House 98-75 on February 18.
