LAKELAND, Fla. – No. 24/16 Florida Southern pulled away late from the visiting Morehouse Maroon Tigers to close out play at the Century Retail Thanksgiving Classic Saturday night, 77-63 at Streamline Sale Court inside the George W. Jenkins Field House.
Florida Southern (7-2) went 5-of-7 from the field down the stretch while Morehouse (2-5) went 0-for-13 to close out the game, which included no field goals in the last 8:11 of the game. With the win, the Moccasins completed a 2-0 performance at the Century Retail Thanksgiving Classic Morehouse and Clark Atlanta each went 1-1 with wins over Saint Leo and losses to Florida Southern.
"Really good to see us respond tonight when Morehouse made their run in the second half," said head coach
Mike Donnelly. "We picked up our defensive intensity halfway through the second half and competed to pull away for a hard-fought win!"
Alex Steen and
Jadin Booth each finished with 23 points to lead the Moccasins in scoring while the shortened bench action saw all eight players score in the contest.
Dominick Denny was the third-highest scorer at nine points ahead of
Joe Moon IV's seven points and
Hugo Mattioli's six.
Amare Miller (4),
Donovan Smith (3), and
Peyton Gerald (2) all contributed to the win.
Florida Southern caused 18 turnovers with 14 steals on the night, scoring 21 points off the Morehouse's turnovers. The Moccasins outscored the Maroon Tigers 42-28 in the paint and had the slight edge in the rebounding margin 51-to-50 with a 33-to-5 margin in fastbreak points.
Omar Rowe paced the Maroon Tigers with 18 points with Cedric Taylor III going for 13, just ahead of Matt Coffey's 10. Jaden Gray added eight points with JerMontae Hill and Quinton Steele II with five. Damion Mitchell chipped in four points in the loss.
The Moccasins got on the board first with a pair of free throws from
Jadin Booth but the Maroon Tigers answered with five straight points to take their only lead of the night, 5-2, with 17:49 to play in the first.
Florida Southern chipped away and reclaimed the lead off an
Alex Steen dunk and
Joe Moon IV's jumper in the paint to make it 6-5 (16:37). The Mocs carried the lead through the rest of the half building out to an 11-point lead, 39-28, as
Amare Miller finished the scoring in the first half with a free throw at the 17-second mark.
Morehouse came for The House with energy to start the second half, cutting the deficit and even claiming a brief lead with 13:23 to play in regulation, 47-46.
Dominick Denny answered Steen's call for a three to push the Mocs back in front, 49-47 (13:03).
The two teams would battle to ties three more times over the next five minutes at 51, 56, and 58 points before Florida Southern turned the pressure up and scored the next seven points for a 65-58 lead with 5:30 to play.
Omar Rowe made a pair of free throws to bring it within five, before
Peyton Gerald's jumper pushed it back to seven with under five minutes to play, 67-60. Florida Southern would extend to a double-digit lead, 71-61 (3:12) before
Hugo Mattioli picked the Tigers' pocket and found Steen for a dunk to make it 12, 73-61.
Steen and Denny would close the scoring on the night in the paint for the Moccasins as Florida Southern pulled away in the closing minutes of the half for the 14-point win, 77-63.
No. 24/16 Florida Southern returns to league play when the Moccasins travel to the undefeated (RV/RV) Tampa Spartans (6-0, 0-0 SSC) on Tuesday, Dec. 3 for a 7:00 p.m. tip inside the Bob Martinez Athletics Center.
Editors Notes:
*Rankings are the NABC Top-25 and the D2CSC Media Poll
*RV is receiving votes in the two national polls
*The Spartans are coming off a 103-96 two-overtime win against Minnesota Crookston on Nov. 30
