LAKELAND, Fla. (March 4, 2025) - Men's basketball hung tough for the first half, but ran out of gas in the second, eventually falling to the #2 seed Florida Southern Mocs 90-69 on Tuesday. The Tars end their season with a 16-14 record, while the Mocs advance to the semifinals with a 24-7 mark.
Rollins jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead, showing great ball movement with assists on each bucket. The high-flying Mocs did not stay down for long, and had the score tied at eight by the first media timeout.
John Latimer III had a nice sequence a few minutes later, with a steal and fast break slam, followed by a tough driving layup to put the Tars back on top by four. He then went to the passing end of things, setting up
Sergey Grishaev for a monster flush. The junior then added a three-pointer a minute later off a feed from
Emilis Butkus.
Southern did not take their first lead of the game until 6:33 remaining in the first half. It was quickly negated by a Grishaev layup, though. After a few more ties and lead changes,
William Jobe followed his own miss with a tip-in, tying the game at 40 before the halftime horn.
Rollins was an efficient 47% from the floor in the first, outshooting the 41% of the Mocs. However, Southern attempted eight more free throws than the Tars, keeping them in the game.
The start of the second half saw both teams working to get good looks on offense, with the Mocs outpacing the Tars by one shot at the first media. A pair of free throws from
Matus Malovec had Rollins within two points at the 14:26 mark; the offense would halt there for three-and-a-half minutes though, allowing the Mocs to grow their lead to 61-51.
Grishaev knocked down a three to snap the streak, but it didn't take. Rollins then went another three minutes without scoring, and the lead was insurmountable at that point. The Tars would not pull any closer than 15 points for the last 6:32 of the game.
Emilis Butkus led the Tars in scoring with 17 points while also grabbing six rebounds and dishing out three assists. Frericks added 16 points and five dimes, Grishaev scored 15 points with seven rebounds, and Latimer checked in with 13. Jadin Booth led all scorers with 24 for the Mocs.
