LAKELAND, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team led by 10 at half, but couldn't withstand a scorching shooting performance from No. 5 Florida Southern on Thursday night, falling in the Sunshine State Conference Tournament semifinals, 80-77. The Eagles (20-10) had an open look at a three from Luka Majstorovic at the buzzer, but even if it had gone the referees decided it came after the horn.
The Mocs (28-2) shot 60 percent from the floor in the second period and shot 20 free throws in the closing half compared to ERAU's three attempts.
The Eagles will now await the NCAA II Tournament selection announcement on Sunday evening. The Blue and Gold is currently No. 7 in the 10-team South Region Rankings. Eight teams qualify for the South Region Tournament, with three bids going to the winners of the SSC, Gulf South Conference and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournaments, and the final five going to the highest ranked teams in the Region Rankings.
Majstorovic scored a team-high 23 points with 10 rebounds, his 13th double-double of the season, while Romeo Crouch added 19 points. Both Elijah Jenkins and Nick Heard finished with 11 points each.
The Eagles dominated the boards with a 46-34 advantage, but the Mocs made the most of their second-chance opportunities, outscoring ERAU 9-8 in second-chance points. ERAU also struggled turning the ball over, committing 12 of them on the night, leading to 15 points for the home team.
For the first 30 minutes the Eagles were the better team, leading by 10 at half and then 61-56 with nine minutes to play. However, a crucial four minutes stretch saw the Eagles outscored 11-3, six coming from SSC Player of the Year Brett Hanson, who finished with a game-high 32 points, and the Mocs took a 67-64 lead with six minutes to play.
Hanson's jumper a few minutes later put the Mocs up 74-70, but a pair of free throws from Majstorovic cut the lead in half at the three-minute mark.
ERAU got to within 75-74 when Majstorovic hit a layup with 2:26 on the clock, and both teams went scoreless for more than 60 seconds as the Eagles turned the ball over twice and FSC missed four straight shots until E.j. Dambreville made a free throw to put FSC up 76-74 at the 1:12 mark.
A missed jumper from the Eagles led to an open layup for Hanson, but Nick Heard answered with a three at the other end to keep ERAU within one point, 78-77.
Hanson made a layup with 29 seconds left and the Eagles missed a layup with 12 seconds to go and were forced to foul with five seconds on the clock.
FSC missed both free throws to keep the Eagles alive, but Majstorovic's shot was off target and too late as the Mocs escaped to claim their spot in the SSC Tournament title game on Sunday.
The Eagles went 8-for-18 from beyond the arc in the first half, propelling them to a 10-point halftime advantage. The visitors also grabbed nine more rebounds in the opening half (26-17), including eight on the offensive end, resulting in eight second-chance points.
After Jair Rodgers got the Mocs started with a triple out of the gate, the Eagles got a layup from Chris Murray and then Crouch hit his first of three first period treys to tie the game at 5-5. ERAU tied the game again on an Elijah Jenkins three at the 14:10 mark, making it 10-10, and ERAU took its first lead of the contest when Nick Heard made a fast break three for a 13-10 Eagle advantage.
Heard pushed the lead to 19-14 a few minutes later with a triple, but the hosts kept the deficit within a couple of possessions until the six-minute mark. Up 26-23, the Eagles went on a 12-3 run in less than three minutes, culminating in Majstorovic's jumper in the paint to make it 38-26 with 3:25 on the clock.
Florida Southern would only get to within eight on a Brett Hanson steal and layup with two minutes to go before David Park accounted for the halftime score of 42-32 with a layup at 53 seconds.
Chris Murray recorded a game-high 13 rebounds and three steals. Crouch and Jenkins both had four assists for ERAU. Embry-Riddle's 12 three-pointers marked the 24th time in 2019-20 the Eagles hit double-digit triples.
