Lakeland, Fla. – Despite leading for the majority of the contest, Lynn University's women's basketball lost to Florida Southern 74-68 in a Sunshine State Conference game on Saturday. With the loss, Lynn is now 7-16 overall and 1-13 in SSC play.

Sharneka McCatty posted a career-high 25 points while shooting 9-14 from the field. Charla Nelson-James had 17 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

The Fighting Knights changed the pace of the game following the under eight minute media timeout. Following the pause, Destiny Brown started the charge with a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to six, 17-11, followed by two more from the charity stripe by McCatty to make it 17-13. McCatty and Brown were not done bring Lynn back into the contest, as the duo forced a Florida Southern (12-12, 6-8 SSC) turnover with McCatty converted on a layup to make it a one possession game at 17-15. Brown ended the rally with a jump shot off a pass from Nelson-James to knot the score at 17-17.

Lynn retook the lead for the first time since leading 6-4 at 21-19, and ended the half up 32-31. The Blue & White outscored the Mocs in the paint 18-10 in the first 20 minutes. Nelson-James paced the offense with nine points in the half, followed by Brown and McCatty with eight each. Tylar Tracy led both teams with three assists.

Following the intermission, Florida Southern came out and scored the first basket to retake the lead. The following possession McCatty made a layup to put the visitors back up one. Lynn's largest lead of the night was seven, after a Nelson-James free throw made the score 42-35. The Fighting Knights held the lead until the Mocs made a layup with 3:48 left to play to make the score 64-63. The final four minutes had three tied scores before FSC pulled away in the final 30 seconds of play.

McCatty exploded in the second half with 17 points and five rebounds, while Nelson-James had eight. Lynn shot 41 percent from the field and 73 percent from the free throw line.

The Fighting Knights are back in action on Wednesday, February 21, when they take on Barry in Miami Shores. Fans can follow the action by going to lynnfightingknights.com and by following @Lynn_Knights on Twitter and Instagram.