Tars Make Short Work of Eagles Behind Almulla's Career Night.

The question going into #17 Rollins matchup with Embry-Riddle at the ICI Center Wednesday night was would the Tars be rusty after a eight day layoff since the last game they played or would they be rested. The Tars answered that question loud and clear in a game that they dominated from start to finish. In the end it was a 85-68 win that improved the Tars to 8-0 on the season. Embry-Riddle fell to 5-1 on the year.  

  The Tars (8-0 1-0 SSC) were paced by a career high 33 points from Sharif Almulla.  The 33 points scored by Almulla were  the most by a Rollins player since Jeremy Sharpe had 32 on January 17,2009 against Nova Southeastern.  Four other Tars scored in double figures for the Tars.  Jeff Merton and Sam Philpott each chipped in 12- Deion Clark netted 11-while Joey Galvis added 10.  

  As they have for the first eight games of the season Rollins continued to be efficient offensively. It is hard to believe after eight games as well as this team has played they were picked ninth in the SSC preseason.  They shot 56 percent from the field in the victory- went 13-25 from the 3-point line(52 percent)- and the team that leads all of Division II in foul shooting percentage coming in shot 93 percent (14-15) at the free throw line.   Rollins had 17 assists and 15 turnovers.  

  The Eagles (5-1) were led by 22 points from Joe Gonzalez- Daniel Kiesling added 15- while Dillon Graham scored 12. ERAU shot 32 percent from the field in the loss.  They shot 30 percent (11-37) from the 3-point line- they shot at a 85 percent clip (11-13) at the free throw line.  The Eagles won the rebounding battle 39-34.  They had 16 assists and 12 turnovers.  

    The Tars ran out to a huge lead.  Almulla would set the tone early as he would nail a 3-pointer to open the scoring.  It would be a 11 point Tars lead (13-2) after another Almulla 3-pointer at the 16:34 mark. The senior from Timber Creek High School would score 10 of the first 13 points for the Tars.  Rollins would keep their foot on the gas and stretch the lead to 21 (29-8) a little more than halfway thru the opening stanza.  They would lead by 29 with a minute left in the half and would lead by 26 (51-25) at the intermission.  

   Rollins saw Almulla scored 23 of his 33 in the opening half.  He was 8 of 11 from the field-to go along with 5 of 6 from the 3-point line.  Merton and Galvis both added 10. They shot 61 percent as a team and went nine of 16 from the 3-point line.  While they held the Eagles to 27 percent shooting on the defensive end.  

  The second half saw the Eagles make a few modest runs but the Tars would cruise to victory.  

    Rollins will be back in action Friday night at 5:30 when they head to the "Shark Tank" to battle Nova Southeastern.  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: 

Barry 109 Lynn 101

Eckerd 104 FIT 100 (OT)

Saint Leo 91 Florida Southern 89

SSC Standings:

Florida Southern 2-1 (4-3)

Eckerd 2-0 (7-1)

Rollins 1-0 (8-0)

Saint Leo 2-1 (6-2)

Florida Tech 1-1 (6-2)

Nova Southeastern 1-1 (3-3)

Barry 1-1 (6-1)

Tampa 0-2 (3-4)

Lynn 0-3 (3-3)