The Rollins Tars will take on a familiar foe in the Barry Buccaneers in the opening round of the South Regional at Spragins Hall in Huntsville, Alabama Saturday at 1 PM Eastern. The Tars come in as the sixth seed in the region, while Barry is the three seed. The Tars and Bucs make up two-thirds of the teams that shared the SSC regular season title (Eckerd was the other.) The two teams split in the regular season. Each winning on there home court. The Trip to the tournament will be the 13th in Rollins history. You can catch all of Saturday's action on the Geico Tars Sports Network on RollinsSports.com and on 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park with Jim "Shooter" Ferro and Robert Siegel on the call.
The Tars (21-8) are coming off a tough 85-72 loss against Lynn in the opening round of the SSC Tournament. It was a rare home loss for a Rollins team who has been solid at home much of the season, including a win over Barry. Rollins shot 40 percent in the loss and went 11 of 17 from the free throw line. The Tars also turned the ball over 18 times.
Sam Philpott lead the way for Rollins with 14 points- Alex Blessig added 12- and- Deion Clark had 11.
As a team Rollins comes in averaging 83.1 points a game. On the defensive end, they are giving up 75.7 points a contest. Rollins has led the conference all year shooting 49 percent from the floor- they have also been a solid 3-point shooting team (38 percent.) The Tars were the best foul shooting team in the conference as well, shooting at a 78 percent clip.
The Tars are led by three players in double figures. Jeff Merton leads the way at 15.7 per night- Philpott posts 12.9 a game- while Sharif Almulla is scoring 12.1 a contest. Clark is just shy of double figures averaging 9.9 a night.
Barry (23-6) earned the third seed in the region. They made it to the finals of the SSC tournament before falling to Eckerd 87-84. It was the second consecutive year the Bucs lost in the SSC final. Last season Florida Southern won the conference and then went on to win the DII National Championship. Yunio Barrueta (22 points and 11 rebounds-) along with Tray Leonard (12 points and 12 rebounds) each posted there 13th double-doubles of the season. Anders Haas also scored in double figures with 10.
Barry comes in averaging 93.3 points a game as a team. They also lead the country in assists per game (21.4.)
The Bucs have both the SSC Player of the Year (Barrueta) and the SSC Newcomer Of The Year (Elvar Fridriksson.) Barrueta scored 24.7 points a game to go along with 9.3 rebounds a contest. Fridriksson is averaging 8.5 assists a night and has had 10 or more assists 12 times this season.
Rollins comes in 46-21 all time against the Bucs. The only meeting between the two schools in the South Region number seven Rollins upset number two Barry in Russelville, Arkansas in 2010.
The Tars are 11-14 all time in the NCAA tournament, this includes a 7-5 record in the opening round. The best run for the Tars was in 2004 when they went to the Elite Eight.
The line presented by JuanBernalSportsBooks.com: Barry by 3
Other South Region Lines:
#2 Eckerd -6 vs #7 Union (TN)
#1 Alabama-Huntsville -8 vs #8 Saint Leo
##4 West Georgia -7 vs #5 Stillman
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