LAKELAND, Fla. - Florida Southern men's basketball, the second seed in the Sunshine State Conference tournament, was upset in the quarterfinals Tuesday night inside the George W. Jenkins Field House by the seventh-seed Barry University Buccaneers 107-89.
"We didn't have any answers for Barry tonight," head coach
Mike Donnelly stated. "Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to play again if we are fortunate enough to be selected to play in the NCAA Tournament."
The Moccasins (21-9) saw three players score double-digits led by
Akol Arop with a 23-point performance. Arop hauled in seven rebounds to finish third on the team in rebounding behind
Alex Steen's 10 and
Luke Anderson's eight. Steen completed a double-double with 21 points, two ahead of Anderson's 19.
Dominick Denny and
Erickson Bans finished with eight points while Denny registered a game-high six assists on the night.
The Buccaneers (16-13) saw Gabe Hernandez have the night of his life with a. 36-point performance ahead of teammate Nick Anderson at 25; the duo missed just nine shots out of the combined 32 taken. James Montgomery pulled in a game-high 14 rebounds and finished with a double-double with 11 points. Adren Roberts chipped in 10 points for Barry in the win.
After
Alex Steen converted the game's first points, Barry took control and ran out to a seven-point lead (9-2) with 17:46 to play. The Mocs cut it to one-two times before another run put the Bucs ahead by eight (20-12) with 13 minutes to play. Florida Southern rallied and tied it at 20 thanks to an
Erickson Bans second-chance three-pointer off an
Akol Arop offensive rebound (11:31).
Florida Southern pushed out to a six-point advantage (28-22) to under 10 minutes to play and carried it up to the 6:23 mark when James Montgomery made back-to-back buckets to push Barry back in front, 33-32, a lead the Bucs would not relinquish. Florida Southern was able to close the first half to just a three-point game as
Dominick Denny ended the half with a jumper at the buzzer, 47-44 Barry.
Through the first five minutes, Barry was able to open a double-digit lead (63-52).
Luke Anderson hit a three to cut it to eight (63-55) but Barry answered with a three before holding a double-digit lead for the final 14 minutes of action, eventually going on for the 18-point victory, 107-89.
With the win, Barry will travel to the winner of the Embry-Riddle – Florida Tech matchup in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Florida Southern will await the NCAA selection show on March 10 at 11 p.m. on NCAA.com to determine their fate and seed number for the NCAA South Regional. The Moccasins were ranked third in the last rankings and will look to advance in the eight-team tournament March 16-19.
