WINTER PARK, Fla. (January 14, 2023) - It was a wild one at Warden Arena on Saturday afternoon as the Rollins Tars and Florida Southern Mocs needed extra time to settle their matchup. In the end, it was the Mocs who held on for a 111-106 win. Rollins now stands at 7-9 overall, and 4-5 in SSC play.
Early on, Rollins established that they would be working their offense through big man
Matheus Silveira. He started things off with a make 25 seconds into the game. He added another a minute later, followed by conversions from
Kyle Marion and
Hutton Yenor. The Tars' offense looked impeccable, taking the buckets form the big man when they could, but also converting on shots from their guards. By the time the first media timeout hit at 13:30, Rollins was up 21-10.
The timeout took away the momentum from the Tars, and allowed the Mocs to get back in the game. A barrage of three-pointers pulled them within one possession at 23-20.
Jaden Frazier and Silveira converted on the next two Rollins possessions to re-establish their cushion at 27-20. The next eighty seconds were wild as points were scored on the next six combined possessions. Trey Jones converted down low twice to go along with a three for Southern, while Silveira used his patented left-hook to score eight straight points for Rollins.
After replacing the big man for a breather, Yenor got the crowd going with a monster jam in traffic followed by a Frazier layup to make the score 39-32. Southern did a good jo working the ball around the Tars zone, and they were able to convert and slowly climb back in the game. Back-to-back threes from EJ Dambreville and Jadin Booth tied the game at 46 with less than 90 seconds to play in the half. Booth then knocked down five free throws in the final minute to give the Mocs a 51-49 lead at the break.
Silveira had 20 points at halftime on 10-12 shooting.
Southern decided to live or die by the three in the second half, and early on they converted to extend their lead. Silveira scored two more times, and
John Latimer III added a three and a steal/layup combo to regain the lead for Rollins at 58-57. The next few minutes were an even battle as the Mocs answered every punch thrown by Rollins to keep it a one possession game. The score tied at 58, 62, 64, 66, and 68. A dunk from Silveira and a three from Marion put Rollins up 77-71 with under ten to go.
Moments later, after
Sergey Grishaev nailed a corner triple to make it 84-77, Southern scored seven straight points and held the Tars scoreless all the way to the final media timeout to tie it once more at 84.
Both teams went fairly cold in the final four minutes. A dunk and a free throw from Noah Louis put the Mocs up 87-85 with under a minute to go, but Latimer knocked down a pull up jumper with 32 seconds to play to tie things up ay 87, leading to overtime.
Florida Southern could not have asked for a better start to the extra period as Booth knocked down a three while being fouled on the firs possession, instantly putting them up four points. With two minutes to go, Booth knocked down another three to extend the lead to 102-92. Rollins stayed in the fight, getting threes from Yenor,
Cade Long, and a three-point play from Marion to pull within four; however, a late Moc freebie and a missed shot late from the Tars became a final of 111-106.
Silveira ended the game with 31 points on 15-17 shooting along with seven rebounds, two assists, and two blocks. Yenor added 27 points and six boards, while Mation contributed 20 points, five boards, and six assists. Booth knocked down 9-17 shots from three, and all 12 of his free throw attempts to finish with a game-high 39 for Southern. Dambreville added 29 points on 11-28 shooting.
Next up for the Tars is a road game at Saint Leo. Tipoff against the Lions is set for 7:30 pm on Wednesday January 18.
