ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Despite a profound second half by the Eckerd men's basketball team, the Tritons were unable to complete the upset win over No. 11 Florida Southern Wednesday night at the McArthur Center.
Eckerd's offense erupted to start the second half as the Tritons went on a 10-0 run over the first two minutes to take a six-point lead. EC and Florida Southern swapped leads for the rest of the half before the Mocs finally went ahead in the final four minutes while holding off Eckerd down the stretch for a 92-84 victory.
HOW IT ENDED
Final: Florida Southern 92, Eckerd 84
Records: Eckerd 6-10 (2-6 SSC); No. 11 Florida Southern 14-2 (6-2 SSC)
KEY MOMENTS
- The teams traded baskets to start the game before FSC took a slight 16-12 edge. EC responded with a run of six straight points to take a two-point favor at the 14:16 mark. The Mocs followed with a 10-2 run over the next five minutes to take a 28-22 lead. Florida Southern held between a four and seven-point lead over the rest of the half with Eckerd trailing by four at 45-41 heading into intermission.
- The Tritons came out aggressively to start the second half as a pair of Kristiyan Stavrev triples and two Admir Radoncic layups combined for a 10-0 run over the first two minutes of the second half to give EC a quick 51-45 lead. Florida Southern responded to even the score twice over the next three minutes, but each time Eckerd pushed back in front as a Daniel Gonzalez layup at the 13:22 mark put the Tritons up 61-57.
- EC maintained a slight favor over the next four minutes before a Xavier Rhodes 3-pointer tied the game at 67-67 and the Mocs took the lead on the ensuing possession. The teams traded leads over the next six minutes, with neither team was able to generate more than a one-possession advantage until FSC went up by five at the 4:08 mark. The Mocs pushed their lead to six on the next possession, but the Tritons scored four straight points to pull within one at 81-80 with two minutes left.
- FSC went up by six inside the final minute, but Stavrev answered with a triple from the left corner to keep the Tritons within striking distance. However, Florida Southern made all of their free throws in the final minute to seal the win.
NOTES AND NUMBERS
- Radoncic led Eckerd with 21 points while O'Shane Taylor-Douglas posted a career-high 18 points. Stavrev and Travis Bianco rounded out the double-digit scorers with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
- EC held a 37-35 favor on the boards led by Radoncic with eight and Bianco with seven rebounds.
- The Tritons shot 48.5 percent from the field but struggled from the perimeter shooting just 15.0 percent while Florida Southern shot 43.3 percent from beyond the arc.
- Bianco played the entire 40 minutes.
QUOTABLE
"We fought really hard tonight. Unfortunately, we just weren't able to make the plays we needed to make down the stretch," said head coach
Bryan Galuski.
UP NEXT
Eckerd returns to SSC action on Saturday with a trip to Rollins at 4:00 PM.
