The Rollins Tars held off a furious rally by Embry-Riddle in the last three minutes to hang on for a 97-93 win at Warden Arena on Saturday. With the win Rollins improves to 14-6 overall and 6-3 in the Sunshine State Conference. After the setback, ERAU falls to 11-8 on the year.
As he has all season long Jeff Merton led the way for the Tars. The sophomore from Naples scored 22 points- Deion Clark had a solid game scoring 17- Sam Philpott scored 13- while Mike Bedulskis netted 12.
The Tars shot 58 percent (33-57) in the victory. This included a 43 percent (9-21) day from the 3-point line- after a rare off game at Tampa the Tars got back to what they have done at the free throw line shooting 85 percent (22-26.) Rollins also had 27 assists in the game. One area that the Tars struggled on Saturday was the 16 turnovers that led to 30 Embry-Riddle points. James Ferrell tied his career high with nine assists to go along with his seven points in the Tars third straight victory. The Tars out rebounded ERAU 35-24 in this one.
Dalton Barnes had a monster second half and led all scorers with 31 points in this one for Embry-Riddle. The Eagles also got 20 points from Ognjen Miljkovic- while Dillon Graham added 16 points, six rebounds and five assists.
ERAU shot 51 percent (30-59) from the field in the loss. They were very good from the 3-point line where they shot 47 percent (15-32.) They also shot at a 82 percent clip (18-22) from the free throw line. They had 19 assists and turned the ball over 12 times. Although the 12 turnovers only cost them 13 points.
The game got off to a slow start for both teams as they went back and forth. It would not take long for the pace to quicken though. A 3-pointer by Clark would give the Tars a six point lead at the 13:14 mark of the opening half. ERAU would take a brief lead, before Rollins would go on a 10-2 run to take a 31-25 lead at the 7:11 mark of the opening half. Rollins would lead by double digits at the 1:16 mark but a tip in by the Eagles right before halftime would make the score 46-38 at the intermission.
The Tars would look to be in command for much of the second half. They led by as many as 14 with just over 10 minutes to go but the Eagles would not go away. A slew of Rollins turnovers would make it interesting down the stretch, as the Eagles would get to within one at the 11 second mark. The Tars would hit four free throws in the last 11 seconds, the latter being by Merton to stave off the comeback.
Rollins will jump right back into Sunshine State Conference action Wednesday when they head to Saint Pete to take on first place Eckerd. Tip time is set for 7:30 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:
Nova Southeastern 79 Palm Beach Atlantic 78
Eckerd 69 Florida Tech 56
Barry 87 Lynn 76
Saint Leo 92 Florida Southern 83
SSC Standings:
Eckerd 9-1 (18-3)
Barry 8-2 (15-3)
Rollins 6-3 (14-6)
Saint Leo 7-4 (14-7)
Lynn 4-7 (10-9)
Florida Southern 4-7 (8-13)
Nova Southeastern 3-7 (8-11)
Tampa 2-8 (6-13)
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