The Rollins Tars, winners of the last two head to Tampa on Saturday afternoon for a 4 PM tip at the Bob Martinez Sports Center. As always you can catch all the action on the Geico Tars Sports Network on 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park and worldwide at RollinsSports.com. For many years when Rollins was winning 20+ games a season Tampa was never a place they played well. Maybe a Rollins team that is playing better will fare better this time despite Tampa always being a House Of Horrors for the Tars.
Rollins (8-16 2-11 SSC) is coming off a solid week with wins over Eckerd and Nova Southeastern. The Tars will look to win three in a row for the first time this season. Alex Blessig set a new Rollins record, going nine of 16 from the 3-point line at the Arena at the Don Taft University Center. Jeff Merton scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds- Sharif Almulla netted 17- while Scott Schuette contributed 15 to go along with a season high nine assists.
Blessig leads the Tars box score as he scores 11.9 points a night- the junior from Berlin dishes out 3.8 assists and gets 2.2 steals per contest. Jeff Merton has used a monster second half of the season to up his averages to 10.6 points and 5.1 rebounds a night- Almulla averages 10.4 a night- while Chris Uhle scores 10 a game.
The Tars are eight in the SSC on offense averaging 68.7 points a game, while sitting third on the defensive end allowing 68.5 a contest.
Tampa comes in riding a five game win streak. The last time out for the Spartans was a 65-57 win over Saint Leo. Jordan Davis stuffed the stat sheet in that game with 19 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Austin Rettig scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds- while Eugene McCrory scored 10.
McCrory is the leading Spartans scorer at 16.8 points a contest and he also grabs 9.2 rebounds a night. Davis has had a solid season as well, scoring 15.2 a game while dishing out seven assists and grabbing 6.7 rebounds per night. Rettig puts in 15.1 a night and grabs 6.3 rebounds. The Spartans score 73.5 points per game- while they give up 69.2 per contest.
This game will also feature two of the five winningest coaches in Division II. Richard Shmidt is one of just three coaches in DII with more wins than Klusman (Bob Chipman of Washburn and and Herb Magee of Philedalphia are the others.
Tampa won the first meeting 82-71 in Winter Park. Almulla scored 15 in that one for the Tars. James Ferrell had 11, he suffered a broken hand and is out for the remainder of the season. Kyle Koszuta had 10.
The Spartans were led in that one by Austin Rettig with 25 and Tyler Zacur netted 15.
The line presented by JuanBernalSportsbooks.com: Tampa by 8.5
Other SSC lines:
Nova Southeastern +5@Florida Tech
Eckerd +9.5@Barry
Lynn +8@Florida Southern
Monday: Palm Beach Atlantic +4.5@Nova Southeastern
SSC Standings:
Florida Southern 12-1 (24-1)
Barry 11-2 (20-3)
Lynn 10-3 (18-5)
Tampa 8-5 (16-8)
Nova Southeastern 5-9 (9-14)
Florida Tech 4-9 (14-11)
Saint Leo 4-10 (12-14)
Eckerd 4-10 (11-13)
Rollins 2-11 (9-16)
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