Big Second Half Powers Panthers Into First Place Tie.

The Rollins College Tars came into Saturday's contest with a chance to take control of the Sunshine State Conference. The Florida Tech Panthers had other ideas. FIT outscored the Tars 53-38 in the second half en route to a 84-70 win at the Clemente Center. The two teams are now tied with identical 5-2 records in the SSC, Eckerd fell off the pace with a loss at Barry to drop them to 4-3.
  FIT improved to 13-3 overall with the win. Jermaine Jackson had 22 points to pace the Panthers. Anthony Jackson added 15 in the win. Simon Cummings who came in as the leading scorer in the SSC at 20.6 a game scored 14 on just 3 of 13 shooting.  Derek Hellemann added 12 for the hosts. FIT shot 48 percent from the field for the game. They were 7-26 from the 3-point line, but were a much better 5-11 in the second half than the 2-15 they shot in the opening stanza. The Panthers shot 77 percent from the foul line and controlled the boards out rebounding the Tars 38-27. The Panthers had 17 assists to go along with nine turnovers.
  Three Tars scored in double figures on the day. Dave Diakite led the way with 20 points and seven rebounds. Chris Malcolm continued his solid play of late with 12 points. Jeremy Sharpe chipped in 10 for the Tars. Myk Brown returned but was held to just six points in the loss. The Tars shot 47 percent from the field and hit 10 of 26 from the 3-point line. The Tars struggled at the foul line going 12-19 (63 percent). The Tars had trouble taking care of the ball as they had 15 turnovers to just 10 assists.
  The game started with the Tars setting the tone early and taking a 14-8 lead nine minutes in. The Panthers would then go on a 10-0 run to take a 18-14 lead with 7:32 in the opening half. The Tars would battle back and take the lead 30-29 with 1:40 to go in the opening stanza on a Cgris Uhle basket. The Panthers retook the lead but Sharpe would hit a jumper that would give Rollins a one point halftime lead.
  The first ten minutes of the second half would see four ties and four lead changes. Ian Scott gave the Tars a one point lead (52-51) but the Panthers would use a 13-1 run over the next few minutes to take a 64-53 lead. The Tars would cut the lead to nine but that is as close as they would get.
 The Tars will be back in action Wednesday when they host Nova Southeastern. As always you can catch all the action on 91.5 FM WPRK and worlwide at RollinsSports.com. Tip time is set for 7:30.