Tars Welcome Tampa For Conference Opener Saturday.

The Rollins Tars (4-0) will open Sunshine State Conference play when they welcome Tampa (1-2 0-1 SSC) to Warden Arena Saturday afternoon. As always you can catch all the action on the Geico Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com and locally on 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park.
  Wednesday night the Tars used a huge second half to propel them to a 78-57 win over Warner, a team they had lost three straight to.  The Tars were led by Jeff Merton, who scored a career high 24 points in the victory after not scoring in the game's first 18 minutes.  James Ferrell scored  11 points and added five rebounds in his first career start.
 The Tars come into Saturday with a high octane offense. They come into the game averaging 91 points a night. Rollins is shooting 53 percent from the field and 42 percent from the 3-point line in the early season.  The Tars are also shooting at a 86 percent clip from the free throw line.
  The Tars have a pair of players averaging double figures thus far on the season. Merton is putting up 18.5 points a night- while Sharif Almulla is netting 13.3 a night. Ferrell is scoring 9.3 per game and has 13 assists in four contests.  Mike Bedulskis has also been solid in the early season. He is scoring 8.5 per night and is grabbing 5.5 rebounds to lead the team.
  The Spartans come in off a loss in there conference opener. The Spartans fell to Florida Tech 68-61 on Wednesday night.  Freshman Pat Bacon scored a career high 25 points to lead Tampa in the defeat.  Austin Rettig also scored in double figures with 12.  Marcel Robinson just missed a double-double (nine points and 10 rebounds) in the loss.
Tampa comes into the contest averaging 66.7 points a game on offense and allowing 71 a night.  They are shooting 38 percent from the floor and 26 percent from the 3-point line.
 Three Spartans are averaging double figures this season. Bacon paces Tampa at 18 a game- while Rettig (11.7) and Zach Hollis (10.7) also are averaging double figures.  The Spartans return eight players from last season's team.
The line presented by JuanBernalSportsbooks.com
Other SSC lines:
Nova Southeastern +1.5@Saint Leo
Eckerd -6@Palm Beach Atlantic
Florida Southern +3@Lynn
Emby Riddle+2@Florida Tech
Note: Embry Riddle and Palm Beach Atlantic are both provisional members of the Sunshine State Conference. They play a home and home with each team in the conference but are not yet members.