Efficient Night Leads to Mocs Win in Winter Park

WINTER PARK, Fla. – Florida Southern men's basketball traveled to Winter Park and defeated Rollins 93-79 inside the Harold & Ted Alfond Sports Center Wednesday night. The Moccasins used an efficient night from the field and free throw line to propel themselves past the Tars.
 
"I thought we played well tonight on both sides of the ball," Head Coach Mike Donnelly stated. "Rollins is a very good offensive team, especially at home, but our defensive effort and execution helped us pull out a big road win."
 
Florida Southern moves to 22-7 overall and 13-6 in Sunshine State Conference play after shooting 50 percent (33-66) from the field and 86.4 percent (19-22) from the free throw line. The Moccasins made eight threes on 34.8 percent shooting. Florida Southern as a team had 36 total rebounds 23 assists and 10 steals.
 
Four players finished in double-figures led by Alex Steen with 21 points where he notched another double-double by grabbing 11 rebounds. Peyton Gerald was second on the team with 18 points ahead of Dominick Denny's 16 and Jadin Booth's 15. Denny fell one assist shy of a double-double with a game-high nine rebounds. Joe Moon IV tallied eight points for the Mocs in the road win. 
 
The Mocs saw 15 bench points with Amare Miller and Kristians Feierbergs at six points each and Hugo Mattioli with three. Florida Southern scored 40 points in the paint and 21 points off 13 Rollins turnovers.
 
Rollins falls to 16-12 overall and 9-10 in league play after dropping the second-season matchup to Florida Southern. Beau Frerick scored a game-high 22 points while Sergey Grishaev had 18 points, three ahead of Emilis Butkis' 15. The Tars shot 46.9 percent (30-64) from the field and 85.7 percent (12-14) from the free throw line while pulling down 36 team rebounds.
 
Both teams claimed early leads but over the first six minutes, Florida Southern claimed the largest of five points on a Krisitans Feierbergs' layup to make it 17-12. Rollins rallied and the two would trade leads up to the 2:02 mark when Peyton Gerald laid it in to tie things up at 41. The Moccasins would score seven points down the stretch to take a five-point lead into the break, 48-43, capped by an Alex Steen dunk.
 
Florida Southern would remain in front for the remainder of the game and eventually push it to double-digits on another Alex Steen dunk at the 17:07 mark, 56-45 FSC. Dominick Denny would find Peyton Gerald for a layup where the senior forward headed to the line and converted the old-fashioned and-one to hand the Moccasins the largest lead of the game, 15, with 3:10 to play (86-71). Florida Southern stayed consistent and earned the 14-point win on the road in Winter Park, 93-79.
 
Florida Southern remains on the road and closes out the regular season on Saturday, March 1 with a mid-afternoon trip to West Palm Beach to take on the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish with an expected tip at 4 p.m. Following that regular-season finale, the Moccasins will await for the official Sunshine State Conference postseason bracket to be announced, where the Mocs have locked up the second or third seed in the upcoming tournament.  
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