Trio Of Seniors Lift Tars Past Paine.

The Rollins College Tars rolled past the Paine Lions 65-51 in a "workmanlike victory" at Epps Gymnasium.  The win gave the Tars two wins in as many days to start the season in the SSC/SIAC Challenge.
  The Tars (2-0) were led by Chris Uhle with 15 points. Uhle also tallied six rebounds and blocked five shots. Uhle is now one blocked shot shy of tying the Rollins career mark set by Chris Malcolm (116 blocks.)   Scott Schuette and Jeff Dirkin each netted 14 for the Tars in the win.  Dirkin added a team high seven assists.  The Tars shot the ball extremely well.  They shot 51 percent (26-51) on the day.  The Tars shot 33 percent (7-21) from the 3-point line. Although they only attempted seven free throws the Tars shot 86 percent (6-7) on the afternoon.  The Tars had 17 assists and nine turnovers in the victory.
  The Lions (0-2) were defeated by a Sunshine State Conference team for the second straight day.  No Lions scored in double figures on the afternoon.  Three Lions led the way with eight points each.  Arnas Libazs, Alfonso Davis, and Jay West were the Lions top scorers.   Paine shot a frigid 36 percent (20-56) on the day.  The Lions shot 26 percent (5-19) from the 3-point line.  Paine shot 67 percent (6-9) at the foul line in a losing effort.  The Lions won the rebounding battle 37-27.  They had just seven assists on 20 made field goals and 13 turnovers in the game.
  The game got off to a very slow start as the Tars would hold the Lions scoreless over the first five minutes.  The Tars would open up a nine point lead (14-5) with 11:04 in the opening half.  The Lions would cut the lead to three with a 6-0 run and trailed 14-11.  The Tars would then go on a 13-0 spurt of their own to open up a 16 point lead (27-11) with five minutes left until halftime.  The Tars would take a 12 point lead (29-17) into the locker room.
   The Lions would come out and score the first four points of the second half to cut the Tars deficit to eight (29-21.)  The Tars would quickly answer as Dirkin would nail a big 3-pointer to stretch the lead back out to double digits. The Tars would lead by double digits the rest of the way and cruise to the victory.  Kyle Koszuta and Uhle would each nail a 3-pointer to give the Tars there biggest lead of the game at 20 (51-31.)
 With the Florida Tech win over Clark Atlanta Saturday the SSC went 4-0 in the SSC/SIAC challenge.
   The Tars will continue a stretch of seven games in 11 days with the home opener Tuesday night when they take on the Warner Royals at Warden Arena.  Warner defeated the Tars in the home opener two years ago.  You can catch all the action on the Geico Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com. and locally on 91.5 FM WPRK.