The fifth seeded Rollins Tars (19-10) will open play in the 2013 NCAA Tournament when they face the fourth seeded and co SSC champion Saint Leo Lions (21-7) for the second straight Saturday. The contest will be a 8:30 tip at Jenkins Field House in Lakeland. Top seed and host Florida Southern will face North Alabama in the opening game at 6 PM. The Tars will be making there seventh trip to the NCAA tournament in the past decade. It is the 12th overall appearance for Rollins. Their best finish was a trip to the elite eight back in 2004.
The Tars went 8-7 on the season at home, but were 11-3 in games away from Warden Arena. The Tars began the season with a seven point exhibition loss to Wake Forrest. The opening regular season game was a surprising loss to Warner before the Tars reeled off eight consecutive wins. They opened the conference season with a 73-45 drubbing of region number three seed Eckerd.
The Tars then fell to Shaw in the Winter Park Rotary Tangerine Tournament before another six game win streak. At 14-2 (6-0 SSC) the Tars looked in great shape. They then hit a rough patch as they suffered blow out losses to both Saint Leo and Southern. The Tars then got a big overtime win to complete the season sweep of Eckerd. The Tars then lost a pair before getting wins at Nova Southeastern and Barry. Rollins then lost the last three of the regular season (Barry, Florida Southern and Saint Leo.)
Coming in as the fifth seed in the conference tournament in Kissimmee the Tars opened with a convincing win over a red hot Florida Tech team that had won nine straight. Saturday the Tars upset top seed Saint Leo and they would fall 72-66 in the championship game to Florida Southern.
First team all SSC performer Kyle McClanahan led the Tars box score at 14.8 a game. The Winter Park native shot 57 percent from the field and dished out 4.5 assists a game. The UF transfer also averages nearly two steals a night. Dave Diakite puts up 12.7 points and hauls in 6.9 rebounds a game. Adam Allen is putting up 10 a night and is the Tars most prolific 3-point shooter. Mitch Woods (8.9 ppg) is coming off a solid SSC tournament along with Brett Chance (8.3 ppg.) Chance is coming off a career high 22 points in the SSC championship game Sunday,
The Tar offense is scoring 70.2 a game, while the defense was second in the conference giving up 64.9 a night. The Tars are 13th in DII knocking down nine 3-pointers a contest. The Tars are 11-13 in 11 previous trips to the NCAA. They have never been the fifth seed. They were 1-1 as the top seed, 4-2 as the second seed. 0-2 is the Tars record as a three seed, while they were 1-1 as the six seed.
The Leo Lions are led by Conference Player of the Year Marcus Ruh. Jerrel Harris and Trent Thomas have also had solid seasons for the Lions. The Lions come into the tournament averaging 69.4 points a contest. The Lions were 11-2 at the Marion Bowman Activities Center on the year and 10-5 away from their home court.
The line: Saint Leo by 4.5
Other Lines:
#1 Florida Southern -10 vs #8 North Alabama
#2 Alabama Huntsville -7 vs Christian Brothers
#3 Eckerd -2.5 vs #6 Benedict
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