Tars Win Fifth Straight.

The Rollins Tars improved to 5-0 overall and 1-0 in the Sunshine State Conference with a hard-fought 86-75 win over the Tampa Spartans inside Warden Arena. With the loss Tampa dropped to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the SSC.
  The Tars were led by Old Dominion transfer Deion Clark. Clark had 18 of his 22 points in the opening half- Jeff Merton drained five 3-pointer's en route to his 17 points- Sam Philpott also added 17- while Sharif Almulla scored 14 to go along with eight rebounds and five assists.
  Rollins shot 42 percent in the game.-They shot 33 percent (10-30) from the 3-point line-a team that come into the game shooting 86 percent as a team at the free throw line, the Tars were 26 of 27 (96 percent on Saturday.)  The Tars had 13 assists and only seven turnovers.
  The Spartans were paced by Pat Bacon who scored 21 points-while three other Tampa players scored in double figures on the day. Austin Rettig netted 19-Marcel Robison scored 17- and- Zach Hollis had 12.
 Tampa shot 47 percent from the field in the game- shooting 37 percent from the 3-point line- they made eight of 12 free throws (67 percent.) The Spartans won the rebounding battle 37-33.  They had 17 assists and 16 turnovers.
  The Tars came out with a lot of energy in the early going. The team honored the late Chris Uhle prior to the game.  The lead would stand up for much of the first half. The Spartans would keep the game very close early and trail by five. A Merton 3-pointer would give Rollins a seven point lead with 7:49 in the opening half. Rollins would take a 42-37 lead into the locker room.
 The Tars would stretch the lead out to 10 in the first two minutes of the second half. The Spartans would not go quietly though. They would go on a 14-4 run that would knot the game at 53 with 10:59 to go. The teams would play even basketball for the next several minutes before the Tars would stretch the lead to six on another Merton 3-pointer, this one from the top of the key at the 5:13 mark. The Tars would lead by as many as 10 at the 2:11 mark and nail nine of 10 free throws to stay perfect for the season.
Rollins will be back in action Monday when they welcome Puerto Rico Bahaman to Warden Arena. Tip time is set for 6 PM. You can catch all the action on the Geico Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com and on 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park
Other SSC scores:
Embry Riddle 94 Florida Tech 77
Saint Leo 93 Nova Southeastern 88
Eckerd 83 Palm Beach Atlantic 78
Florida Southern 98 Lynn 91
SSC standings:
Florida Tech 1-0 (3-1)
Florida Southern 2-0 (2-2)
Rollins 1-0 (5-0)
Eckerd 1-0 (3-1)
Nova Southeastern 1-1 (2-1)
Saint Leo 1-1 (3-1)
Barry 0-1 (2-1)
Lynn 0-2 (1-2)
Tampa 0-2 (1-3)