Tars Shake Off Rust, Panthers Thursday.

On a night when the Rollins College Tars played in front of a sparse crowd due to winter break and had to provide some energy by some highlight reel dunks the Tars knocked off Claiflin 65-56. First the Tars had to shake off some rust, after playing for the first time in 15 days at Warden Arena.
  The Tars (6-4)  were led by a balanced attack. Mitch Woods led the Tars with 14 points to go along with a season high nine assists.  Scott Schuette had three big 3-pointers and tallied 11 points.  Alex Blessig added 10 points and six assists. The Tars also got eight points each from Chris Uhle and Jeff Dirkin. Dirkin also grabbed eight rebounds.  Uhle also added four blocked shots. The Tars shot 56 percent from the field on the game (24-43.) They also shot 55 percent (11-20) from the 3-point line in the contest.  They shot just 60 percent (6-10) at the foul line. The Tars won the rebounding battle 34-29. The Tars had 18 assists and 11 turnovers.  The win was the fifth straight for Rollins after a 1-4 start.
  The Panthers only had one player score in double figures. Montel Williams drained seven 3-pointers en route to a 23 point effort.  Marcelus Dunn added nine points and five rebounds. Brandon Curry added eight in the loss. Just like many teams have against the Tars this season, the Panthers struggled against the zone defense. Claiflin managed just 56 points on 35 percent shooting from the field.  They were 9- of 21 from the 3-point line with Williams accounting for 7 of 14. The Panters shot 47 percent (7-15) at the foul line. They had 15 assists and seven turnovers.
   Neither team could find the basket in the early going. The Panthers would finally score the game's first basket at the 16:53 mark. The Tars would then run off the next seven points.  The Tars zone continued to stymie Claiflin and they would open up a 15 point lead (24-9) at the 6:46 mark of the opening half.  The Tars would stretch that lead out to 16 on a pair of ocassions but the Panters would get to within 11 just before the halftime buzzer. After a pair of missed free throws by Trip McFall with three second in the opening half, Adam Allen would tip one in at the buzzer to give the Tars a 13 point lead (36-23) at the break.
  The first 6:15 of the second half would see the Tars stretch that lead to 20 (49-29) which was the biggest of the contest on a Uhle 3-pointer.  The Panthers would get to within eight (52-44) before a Schuette 3-pointer stretched the lead back to 11 at the 9:26 mark. The Panthers would get to within eight again on a Dunn 3-pointer, but Blessig would answer to give the Tars a 11 point lead (58-47) with 7:52 to go. The Tars would hang on down the stretch and secure the victory.
  Rollins will take another long break as they will not play again until January 4th. The Tars will battle Tampa at the Bob Martinez Sports Center on that day. As always you can catch all the action on the Tars sports network and 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park and round the world at RollinsSports.com