Box Score
LAKELAND â€" Florida Southern’s lineup got a little bit of a jolt Saturday afternoon against Palm Beach Atlantic, with leading scorer Kirstin McIntyre not among the starting five for the first time this year. By the end of the game â€" no, by the end of the first half even â€" it was McIntyre who had provided the juice that snapped the Moccasins out of an early scoring funk and propelled them on to a 66-52 win over the Sailfish.
Playing its final non-conference game of the season, Florida Southern (8-7) fell behind 9-4 at the outset before McIntyre came off the bench and breathed life into the Moccasin offense. Over the final 13 minutes of the first half, the fifth-year senior forward from Hopewell Junction, New York scored 16 points and had six rebounds to help the Mocs take a 34-22 lead at the break. She again came off the bench in second half and added nine more points to finish with a career-high 25, the first time any Moccasin reached 20 this season. She also grabbed nine rebounds overall, had two assists and two steals before finishing her work with the Mocs up by 20 with two minutes to play.
The Sailfish (4-14) never really found a way to combat McIntyre inside, and when senior Tracy Fosterling (Albuquerque, NM) and senior Alexis Hochstetler (Sarasota, FL) started the second half with 3-pointers, they soon had other worries. Hochstetler finished with a season-high 14 points, had six rebounds and three assists, after putting up 11 points and 12 boards in a 68-42 win at PBA in December.
With Florida Southern making just one of its first 10 shots, it was PBA that had the early advantage, and if not for five consecutive missed free throws by the Sailfish, their lead could have been greater. Instead, it never got above five, and a second-chance basket by McIntyre at the 12:51 mark started the Moccasins on a 22-4 run that saw the Sailfish go more than 10 minutes without making a field goal.
Of those 22 points, McIntyre scored 14 of them, though it was Hochstetler who put the Mocs ahead to stay with 11:47 to play in the half. McIntyre then made her first 3-pointer of the season, and only the second of her career, to give the Mocs a 15-10 lead. That was part of a six-minute stretch that saw McIntyre, junior Morgan Lamberg (Mukwanago, WI) and freshman Natalie Wood (Pewaukee, WI) combine to out-score the Sailfish, 14-1.
Lynsey Poole, who led Palm Beach Atlantic with 20 points in the game, broke the hex with a layup just over four minutes before halftime, and the Sailfish went 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the final 2½ minutes of the half to trim a 17-point Moccasin lead down to 10. But just before the buzzer sounded, freshman Ali Sanders (Carpentersville, IL) gave FSC the last points of the half by scoring after an offensive rebound.
After Fosterling and Hochstetler made 3-pointers early in the second half, the Moccasin lead was up to 19 (42-23). Led by Poole and Ashley Dolberry though, the Sailfish went on a 12-1 run that had the deficit back to single digits. Back-to-back three-point plays by Dolberry only a few seconds apart made the score 43-33, and Poole’s jumper with 12:38 remaining made it 43-35.
Then it was Caitlin Lindsey’s turn to step up for the Moccasins, as the freshman from Port Charlotte came up with two baskets of her own, sandwiched around another by McInytre. Finally, after Dolberry’s layup with 7:21 to play got the deficit down to nine, the Mocs were able to put the game away with 11 straight points that included seven by Hochstetler.
Poole and Dolberry combined for six points in the final 1:31 to provide the final margin. Poole finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Dolberry had 16 points, six rebounds and four steals. They also had 11 of PBA’s 15 field goals, as the Sailfish shot just 32 percent from the floor and were 1-for-9 from 3-point range.
Florida Southern, which had started the game 1-for-10, shot 49 percent after that to finish at 42 percent for the game (25-for-59). The Mocs were also 4-for-14 from behind the arc, including 3-for-6 in the second half.
While McIntyre (25) and Hochstetler (14) were the scoring leaders for the Moccasins, Lamberg finished with seven points and nine rebounds, and Lindsey added six points, three assists and three steals.
Florida Southern will end its 3-game home-stand on Wednesday when it hosts the University of Tampa, with tip-off scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
