Bench Lifts Tars Past NSU Wednesday.

The Rollins Tars got 60 points off the bench and rolled to a 86-67 win over Nova Southeastern at Warden Arena inside the Alfond Sports Center Wednesday night.  With the victory Rollins improved to 14-10 and 8-6 in the SSC. The Tars sit in a third place tie with Florida Southern in the conference standings. Nova lost a seventh straight and fell to 5-17 and 2-13 in the SSC.
   Jack Fleming paced Rollins with 16 points on the night. Fleming hit four 3-pointer's and was a perfect 4 of 4 at the free throw line- Eric Castaneda provided a huge lift to a struggling Tars team as he scored all 14 of his points in the opening half- Sam Philpott (13 points-) and- Jakobi Bonner (10 points) made it four Rollins players who scored in double figures, all from the team's second unit.
  Rollins shot 46 percent as a team in the victory- they shot 38 percent (12-32) from the 3-point line- but went 20-23 (87 percent) at the free throw line.  Rollins had 24 assists and nine turnovers in this one.
  The Sharks had three players score in double figures.  Dwayne Gibson scored 21 of his 24 points in the second half- Harrison Goodrick added 15- while Troy Spears netted 12.
  NSU shot 45 percent as a team- 33 percent (9-27) from the 3-point line- and- 63 percent (12-19) at the free throw line.  The Sharks won the rebounding battle 37-28.  They had 15 assists and 22 turnovers as a team.
  The game got off to a slow start for both teams as baskets were hard to come by in the early going.  The Tars led by nine (11-2) nine minutes into the game.  The Tars would lead the game throughout. They would go up by 15 (29-14) as Castaneda would hit back to back 3-pointer's with five minutes to go in the opening half.  The Tars would get a late 3-pointer from Connor McKim right before halftime and lead by 19 (45-26) at the intermission.
  The second half would be much like the first as both teams would struggle offensively early on, but the Sharks would pull to within 13 (68-55) at the 6:55 mark.  That is as close as they would get.  The Tars would lead by as many 23 before cruising to victory.
  The game was the last inside Warden Arena for Gary Tuell, who will be retiring as the coach of Nova Southeastern after this season.  Tuell spent 13 seasons at NSU and won six conference championships- four region championships- and six conference titles. The Sharks were 9-6 in six NCAA appearances under Tuell.
  Rollins will be back in action Saturday when they head to Boca Raton to face the Fighting Knights of Lynn. Tip time is set for 4 PM. As always you can catch the game on the Geico Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com and locally on 91.5 FM WPRK.
Other SSC Scores Wednesday:
Eckerd 59 Tampa 46
Lynn 75 Saint Leo 73
Palm Beach Atlantic 76 Barry 75
Florida Southern 86 Florida Tech 71
SSC Standings:
Barry 12-3 (19-3)
Eckerd 10-4 (17-6)
Rollins 8-6 (14-10)
Florida Southern 8-6 (10-13)
Tampa 7-6 (14-9)
*Palm Beach Atlantic 7-8 (11-11)
Lynn 6-7 (11-10)
Saint Leo 5-8 (11-12)
Florida Tech 5-9 (12-11)
Nova Southeastern 2-13 (5-17)
*Embry-Riddle 0-0 (14-7)
* indicates provisional SSC member