MELBOURNE, Fla. – No. 20 Florida Southern College men's basketball traveled to the Charles and Ruth Clemente Center on the campus of Florida Institute of Technology and defeated the regular season sweep of the Panthers after an 84-74-win Saturday evening.
"Always good to get a road win," Head Coach
Mike Donnelly said. "I was really pleased with how we played in the first half and did enough in the second half to pull out the win.
Riley Buccino gave us great minutes off the bench tonight. His energy, confidence, and focus were terrific. His production was huge for us!"
Six Moccasins (17-4, 8-3 SSC) scored in double-figures led by
Dominick Denny with 15 points. Denny played in 30 minutes on the night and shot 5-for-8 from the field including a 3-for-4 night from beyond the arc. He would add a 2-for-4 mark from the free throw line.
Alex Steen (14),
Peyton Gerald (13),
Amare Miller (11), and
Kristian Feierbergs (11) closed the double-digit scorers for Florida Southern as
Joe Moon IV (7),
Jadin Booth (6),
Riley Buccino (5), and
Donovan Smith (2) all registered points in the road win.
The Mocs won the rebounding battle 40-to-32. Moon IV led the team with seven boards, ahead of Steen and Miller, who each had six. Florida Southern tallied 10 blocks in the game: six from Steen, two from Buccino, and one each from Booth and Miller. The win over the Panthers completed the regular-season sweep, as Florida Southern defeated Florida Tech 99-76 on Dec. 7.
Florida Tech (3-16, 0-11 SSC) saw six players also score in double-figures while only one other player scored in the 10-point loss for the Panthers. Max Polk led the team with 16 points while Isaiah Edden, Xavier Ford-Belton, and Logan Allen each tallied 14 points. Donovan Brown came in off the bench and scored 13 points.
Donovan Murphy was the only other Panther to score which was a jumper and a free throw for three points. Ford-Belton nearly notched a double-double with a game-high nine rebounds.
The opening seven minutes of the contest was tightly contested before Florida Southern stretched the lead to a six-point advantage on a three-pointer as
Joe Moon IV found
Kristians Feierbergs for a three-pointer, 17-11 (13:07). The Mocs pushed it to eight points off Feierbergs' jumper (19-11) but the Panthers closed the gap to just one multiple times over the next six minutes of play.
Florida Southern would close the first half on a 12-0 run over the final 3:32 minutes for a 45-28 halftime lead.
The Moccasins looked to control the rest of the game and extend their lead to 18 points, with the last 18-point lead being 80-62 with 3:25 to play, but the Panthers wouldn't go quietly seeking their first league win of the season. Florida Tech closed the game on a 12-2 run over the final 2:15 to get within 10 points, but quick strikes from the Mocs including a tip-in from
Alex Steen with 19 seconds to play kept it at a 10-point spread.
After two failed attempts in the closing seconds from the Panthers,
Peyton Gerald hauled in the last registered stat of the game a defensive rebound where the Mocs went on to dribble out the remaining clock for the 84-74 road win.
No. 20 Florida Southern returns home for a midweek matchup with the Tampa Spartans (14-5, 6-5 SSC) who come to Streamline Sale Court for a 7:30 p.m. expected tip. The Spartans will arrive at Jenkins Field House on a four-game win streak including a 97-88 upset over the league-leading Palm Beach Atlantic (Jan. 18) and Saturday's 95-86 win over Saint Leo (Jan. 25).
