Photo Courtesy Mikaela Queen/FSC Athletics

Reems Landreth

Jonathon Lawton (29 pts) and Brett Hanson (23 pts) led Florida Southern to a 24 point comeback tonight as they defeated Saint Leo, 86-83.

Florida Southern (14-4, 7-3 SSC) came off a 14 point loss to Rollins College last Saturday while Saint Leo (8-10, 5-5 SSC) came into the matchup on a four game win streak with wins over major conference opponents.

The Mocs stumbled in the opening minutes as they quickly took a 7 point deficit (2-9) before Jack Rauch and Hanson each put in two to hold a 6 point deficit (6-12) with 16:23 left in the half.

Southern failed to match Saint Leo through the bulk of the first half, letting the point margin slip through their hands to a 24 point deficit (25-49) with 4:49 left in the half. Ben Marello and Rauch put together a small comeback in the first half to narrow the margin to 15 (53-38) at the half.

The second half brought out a completely different Moccasin team. Lawton opened the half with 5 points in the first two minutes to start off a 22 point rally by Lawton and Hanson over the first 10 minutes of the half to put the Mocs within 4 points of the lead (63-67).

The Lions found their groove again, holding their four point lead before Lawton tied the game up with 2:39 left and Rauch retook the lead 40 seconds later.

Lawton and Marello finished it off for the Mocs, scoring the final 7 points.

Hanson had 23 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists in today’s match up while Lawton recorded 29 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Marello also had 12 points while Rauch put in 15 points and 9 rebounds.

The Mocs will have the weekend off before making the trip down Interstate 4 to play the University of Tampa (9-9, 3-7 SSC) at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center in Tampa, Fla.. That game will start at 7:30 p.m. and can be viewed on the Sunshine State Conference Digital Network.

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