Box Score EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Kevin Capers finished with 28 points as top-ranked Florida Southern College pulled away from unranked Southern New Hampshire University late for an 81-70 win in the "Elite Eight" of the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship Wednesday night at the Ford Center. The Mocs won their 23rd straight to improve to 34-1 and advance to Thursday's semifinal round, while the Penmen, making their first Elite Eight appearance since 1995, see their season come to a close at 24-8.
Capers also handed out five assists and led three Mocs in double figures. Michael Volovic finished with 13 points on 5-7 shooting off the bench for Florida Southern, while Bubby Johnson added 10 points.
BJ Cardarelli (Manchester, Conn.) led Southern New Hampshire with 17 points, going 5-6 behind the arc, while also grabbing nine rebounds. Elijah Bonsignore (Felton, Del.) added 16 points and four assists for the Penmen. Devin Gilligan (Amherst, N.H.)contributed nine points off the bench, while Aleksandar Dobrovic (Podgorica, Montenegro) and Adrian Oliveira (Pawtucket, R.I.) each scored seven, with Dobrovic becoming the 46th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark.
Southern New Hampshire held a 37-30 lead with 4:53 left in the first half following a Cardarelli triple, but was held without a field goal for over 11 minutes as the Mocs turned the tide and opened a 46-39 lead after a Capers layup. Oliveira stopped the bleeding with a three at the 13:41 mark to cut the lead to 46-42. The Penmen chipped away and tied the game 54-54 with 9:38 left on a conventional three-point play by Bonsignore.
Florida Southern scored the game's next six points to go up 60-54 with 7:41 remaining. A Gilligan three at the 7:25 mark halved that lead, but four straight Moc points made it 64-57 with 5:32 left. Following an Oliveira basket with just over five minutes left that made it 66-61, SNHU again went cold and a 14-2 Florida Southern run sealed the win as the Mocs went up 80-63.
A Volovic three just under seven minutes into the game gave Florida Southern a 17-14 lead after the Penmen opened the game by scoring the first five points. Down 19-16, Southern New Hampshire reeled off 13 straight points and a three by Dobrovic at the 8:52 mark gave SNHU its largest lead, 29-19. FSC scored the final eight points of the first half and took a 38-37 lead into the locker room. The Mocs scored the first four points of the second half before a pair of Cardarelli free throws at the 16:57 mark ended an eight-minute scoring drought.
Florida Southern took 12 more trips to the free throw line, going 16-21 at the charity stripe, including 11-13 in the first half, while the Penmen did not take a free throw until Cardarelli's tries three minutes into the second stanza and finished 7-9. SNHU was whistled for 24 fouls and FSC 14, with Dobrovic and NE-10 First Team performer Rodney Sanders (Linden, N.J.) each saddled with three fouls in the first half. Both eventually fouled out, with Dobrovic playing just 14 minutes and Sanders 19, finishing with a season-low five points and taking just five shots.
The Mocs shot 51.4% in the second half and 44.8% for the game while limiting the Penmen to 35.5% over the final 20 minutes after they went 15-27 (55.6%) in the first half. SNHU went 11-26 behind the arc while Florida Southern went just 5-21, but the Mocs, who entered the game second in Division II in turnover margin (+7.0) forced 24 Southern New Hampshire giveaways, leading to a 28-10 lead in points off turnovers. SNHU did have a 37-29 rebounding advantage.
Southern New Hampshire was making its seventh Elite Eight appearance all-time and first since 1995.
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