Tritons Move On in SSC Tournament With Win Over Florida Southern

Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - If Eckerd's opponent in the opening round of the Sunshine State Conference tournament looked familiar, it might be due to the fact that the same team visited the McArthur Center on Saturday.

The Tritons hosted Florida Southern for the second time in five days and came away with the same result both times.  After handing the Mocs a 16-point defeat on Saturday, Eckerd did it again in a slightly lower-scoring game to advance to the SSC semifinals with an 88-72 win.

"I'm very proud of the entire team and how we defended for 40 minutes tonight," said EC head coach Tom Ryan.  "We did a good job against a team with a lot of weapons.  We had lots of people step up tonight but all four seniors played a big part in our success."

Neither team got off to a fast start.  It took FSC four minutes to score its first basket, and 10 minutes into the game, the score favored the Mocs at 12-11.

Soon thereafter, Eckerd began to find its rhythm on offense and rolled off 11 unanswered points to take a 25-17 lead.

The Tritons stayed in control for the rest of the game, pushing the lead into double-digits for good on a Kevin Walsh free throw with 12:11 to play.  It came as part of a quick 7-0 run that gave EC a 61-46 advantage, and the lead fluctuated between 12 and 17 points from that point forward.

Eckerd (21-7) again featured a balanced effort on offense.  Drushaun McLaurn led the way with 20 points, marking the third time he reached the 20-point mark against FSC this season, and pulled down 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year.  Obi Kyei also posted a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.  Trevon Young added 16 points as did Kevin Walsh, whose free throw late in the game gave him 1000 points for his career.

Defensively, the Tritons held FSC to just 37.7 percent shooting from the floor and 20.4 percent from behind the arc.

The win moves Eckerd into the conference semifinals on Saturday at 7:30 PM, where the Tritons will take on Rollins in the ICI Center at Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach.  Rollins built a big lead against Lynn, then held off a comeback attempt by the Knights to advance.