Sliding Into The Storm.

The Rollins College Tars (7-3) thought a trip back to Warden Arena would cure all that went wrong in Las Vegas. Instead, for the first time since 1998 the Tars will not play in the championship game of it's annual Tangerine Tournament. The Storm of Lake Erie improved to 5-4 on the season and will face West Georgia in Friday's championship game. The Tars will face California (PA) in the consolation game at 5 PM.
  Chris Malcolm led five Tars in double figures in their third straight loss. Malcolm tallied 12 points, to go along with seven rebounds, four blocks and two steals. Scott Schuette added 12 points on 7 of 8 from the free throw line. Dave Diakite, Myk Brown and Jeremy Sharpe each tallied 11 in the 79-65 loss.
 The Storm were led by a season high 24 points from Rich Austin. Riley Thomas netted 18, and Jamil Dudley posted 12 for Lake Erie.
  LEC shot 48 percent for the game and 7 of 24 from the 3-point line. The The Tars shot 32 percent from the field and were 5-19 from the 3-point line. The Tars are now 13-54 from three point land during this three game losing skid. The Tars continued to struggle on the glass as they were out rebounded 35-30. Rollins also had 19 miscues that led to 20 Lake Erie points.
 The game would start out played close for much of the first half. The Storm would lead 18-14 before a 7-0 Tars run would give the hosts a 21-18 lead.   The Storm would close the half on 10-1 spurt and carry a 36-31 lead into halftime. Rollins would come out in the second half and get a pair of lay ups in the first 35 seconds to cut the lead to 36-35. That is as close as they would get, as the Storm would pull away with a 20-4 run that would make it 56-39. Rollins would get within nine after a pair of Scott Schuette free throws with 2:25 left but Riley Thomas would nail a big three and the Storm would make their  free throws to "ice it".
 Rollins will host California (PA) in the opener at 5 PM tomorrow, followed by Lake Erie and West Georgia in the championship game ay 7 PM. West Georgia used a 22-2 spurt to a 12 point win in the opener Thursday. As always you can catch all the action on Rollinssports.com and WPRK Winter Park.