Basketball seniors say final farewell

The 2015-2016 basketball regular season came to a close this past Saturday as both the men and women’s teams battled against Nova Southeastern.

Although the men’s team battled hard, the Nova Southeastern Buccaneers managed to earn a victory making them the No. 5 seed in the Sunshine State Conference Tournament. The Mocs are now the No. 8 seed and will be facing either No. 5 seed Nova Southeastern or No. 4 seed Saint Leo on Sat. March 5 in Daytona Beach.

The four seniors that were recognized on Saturday were Melique Hill, Dominique Williams, Dylan Travis and Alex McClanahan.

Three out of the four seniors have been with the Mocs their entire career except for Travis. Travis joined the Mocs in the 2014-2015 season after transferring from Iowa Central Community College.

Hill is from Tampa, Fla. and is an interpersonal communications major. During his time with the Mocs, Hill has been regarded as a very supportive player on and off the bench. When he graduates this spring he plans on getting a job in a news studio in Tampa.

Hill’s advice for the team is to “play together and just be a good teammate, because that goes so far with winning.”

Williams is from Haines City, Fla. and transferred to Florida Southern three seasons ago. He is criminology major. During his reign with the Mocs, he has played in 122 games, scored 1,253 points and has a shooting percentage of 44.2. When he graduates in the spring he plans on playing professional basketball overseas.

“If the plan to play overseas doesn’t work out for me, I plan to go into law enforcement for either the city of Lakeland or the Polk County Sheriff Department,” Williams said.

Travis hails from Omaha, Neb. and transferred to Florida Southern two seasons ago. He is a Secondary Education major. During his time at Florida Southern he has played 60 games, scored 919 points and has a shooting percentage of 44.9. When he graduates later this semester he plans on playing professional basketball for as long as possible.

“My mom got me into basketball by signing me up for high school basketball camps and she taught me how to play,” Travis said. “In the summer she would take me outside and put me through drills. Where I grew up everyone played basketball so I would always join in. I was a lot younger but I held my own.”

McClanahan resides in Maitland, Fla. and is a biochemistry and molecular biology major. During his time with the Mocs he has been in 42 games, scored 20 points and has had a shooting percentage of 25.0. After graduation McClanahan plans on enrolling into medical school, but if that doesn’t work out he will get his masters in biomedicine at UCF.

“My favorite memory definitely has to be the welcome back party after we won the National Championship. That was just a phenomenal two hours when we got back to campus,” McClanahan said.

“To be greeted by so many fans, friends, and family, it was just such a great time. It was nothing but happy memories for me. I had never won a championship that big and just to get back to campus and see everyone smiling and supporting us, that really hit home and made all the hard practices and hard work worth it,” continued McClanahan.

The Sunshine State Conference Tournament (Finals) will be held on Sun. March 6 at 1 p.m. at the ICI Center in Daytona Beach.