LAKELAND,Fla.—Barry University men’s basketball team saw their four-game winning streak come to a halt Saturday night when they fell at the hands of the Florida Southern Mocs 86-72. The Buccaneers (8-8, 3-2 SSC) fell behind early and were never able to quite catch up.
Florida Southern (9-5, 3-3) jumped out to an early 21-11 lead after a Kevin Capers jumper with just under 11 minutes in the first half and never looked back increasing their lead by as many as 13 throughout the half.
The Mocs capitalized on 10 first half turnovers by the Bucs, turning them into easy buckets. The combination of turnovers and a lackluster 34 percent shooting in the first half resulted in a 13 point Florida Southern advantage heading in to the intermission 38-25. Of the Buccaneers nine first half field-goals, four of them were from beyond the arch and the Mocs held a slight advantage, 21-18, on the glass.
The Bucs would make several runs, staying within striking distance throughout the second half, and cut the deficit to seven points after an Emory Bennett layup, but the comeback would fall short.
The Buccaneers finished strong offensively shooting 48 percent from the field including 42 from beyond the arch, but turnovers in both halves plagued the Bucs. The Mocs finished with 23 points from the Barry’s 20 turnovers.
Even though there was no major discrepancy in rebounds, or shooting percentage offensively, Florida Southern did have 14 more attempts than the Bucs largely in part because of their ability to limit their turnovers to just nine for the game.
Barry was paced by Evan White who finished with 19 points, 13 of which came in the second half. While Damien Dwaine added 11 points and Bryan Van Cott, Justin McCoy and Chad Renfro each chipped in nine.
Seth Evans led all scorers for the Mocs with 23 points including 4-9 from beyond the arch and a perfect 7-7 from the free-throw line.
The Buccaneers will now travel to Winter Park where they will take on the Rollins Tars who are currently in first place in the SSC with a 4-1 mark in conference play. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. with live-stat and video broadcast available through the Barry University website, GOBARRYBUCS.COM.