Florida Southern Too Much For Spartans In Lakeland

LAKELAND, Fla. - The University of Tampa (20-6, 9-6 SSC) men's basketball team lost its regular season series with Sunshine State Conference rival Florida Southern College (20-7, 11-4 SSC) as the Mocs closed out an 86-75 victory in front of a crowd of 1,005 at the Jenkins Field House.

The Moccasins held the lead for the entire game after UT scored the first basket of the game. After taking a 38-27 advantage to the half, Florida Southern survived a late scare as the Spartans trimmed the deficit to 50-45 with 12:19 remaining in regulation.

Leading by just five points, the Mocs scored nine unanswered to stretch its edge to 14 points with just over 10 minutes to play. The Spartans would cut the lead to single digits on three occasions within the final five minutes but to no avail as the Mocs went 9-for-10 from the free throw line inside the final two minutes of play.

Rashad Callaway led the Spartans with a team-high 23 points as UT was outshot 50 to 38.1 percent on the game and surrendered 12 3-pointers to Florida Southern. Callaway also led UT with five assists.

Callum Townsend and Osby Kelly each added double figures off head coach Richard Schmidt's bench, scoring 17 and 11 points respectively. Townsend also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in the absence of leading rebounder Fred Woods, who sat out for the second straight game due to an injury.

Tampa will play host to Florida Tech on Saturday in its final regular season game and senior day for five Spartan seniors. The game is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Bob Martinez Sports Center. Live stats and a webcast will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.

Fans may also follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans). UT also offers blAst, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.