Tars-Tritons Do Battle Saturday.

The Rollins College Tars (7-16 0-11 SSC) head back to Winter Park Saturday to battle the Eckerd College Tritons (11-11 4-8 SSC) at Warden Arena inside the Alfond Sports Center. You can catch all the action with Jim"Shooter" Ferro and Robert Siegel on the Geico Tars Sports Network at 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park and worldwide at RollinsSports.com
The Tars come into Saturday's game mired in a 11 game losing slide.  The last win for Rollins came agains Florida Memorial back on January 3rd.  With just five games remaining in the season the Tars will need to finish strong to have any chance to participate in this year's Sunshine State Conference Tournament at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee (eight of the nine teams qualify.)  The Tars are coming off a 86-73 loss to sixth ranked Barry the last time out.  Jeff Merton led the way with 15 points, the freshman also grabbed eight rebounds- Scott Schuette tied his season high with 14 points- while Sharif Almulla scored 13 points, dished out four assists and also grabbed four rebounds.
  Alex Blessig continues to lead the Tars in scoring on the season. The junior transfer from Florida Gulf Coast comes into Saturday putting up 10.9 points a game- he also is seventh in the conference with 3.7 assists a game- and fourth in steals at 2.2 per contest.  Merton has scored in double figures in five consecutive games and is putting up 10.4 a night- Chris Uhle missed the game against Barry and is scoring 10 per night. The senior from Ocala is day to day and will be a game time decision for Saturday's contest.
  The Tars have struggled defensively the last few games and have dropped to third in the SSC, allowing 68.4 points per game. On offense they are eight in the SSC averaging 67.6 points per night.
  Eckerd comes in having lost three straight. Wednesday they were a 56-53 loser to Tampa.  Trevon Young led Eckerd with 17 points and six rebounds in the loss- Jerrick Stevenson added 10.  Stevenson leads EC on the season at 13.5 points per game. He is also grabbing 5.3 rebounds a night.  E.J. Moody contributes 10.3 points a night and is the top free throw shooter in the conference shooting at a 91 percent clip.  Malcolm Bruner Jr. leads the Tritons in rebound getting 6.4 per night. On offense the Tritons score 70.7 points a game, at the other end they give up 70 a night.
  The two teams last met on January 17th with the Tritons winning 64- 62 in overtime.  The Tars had three players in double figures that day. Merton led the way with 18, including a pair of free throws to tie it at the end of regulation.  Uhle (14) and Almulla (13) also scored in double figures that day.  Stevenson led the Tritons that day with 17- while Kevin Walsh had 14 points and dished out seven assists.
The line presented by JuanBernalSportsbooks.com: Eckerd by 3
other SSC lines:
Barry -6.5@Nova Southeastern
Florida Southern -7@Florida Tech
Saint Leo +8@Lynn
Tampa -4@Palm Beach Atlantic
SSC Standings:
Florida Southern 10-1 (22-1)
Barry 10-1 (19-2)
Lynn 9-3 (16-5)
Tampa 7-5 (14-8)
Nova Southeastern 5-7 (9-12)
Eckerd 4-8 (11-11)
Saint Leo 4-8 (12-12)
Florida Tech 3-8 (13-10)
Rollins 0-11 (7-16)