The Rollins Tars gained a return trip to the NCAA South Region and for a second straight year will participate in the Division II NCAA Tournament. In Saturday's opening round the Tars (21-10) will take on the Blazers of Valdosta State (26-5.) The game will tip at 330 PM Eastern time from Spragins Hall in Huntsville,Alabama. You can catch the game on the Geico Tars Sports Network at 91.5 FM WPRK and worldwide on RollinsSports.com. Jim "Shooter" Ferro and Nate Weyant will be on the call, with Austin David and Juan Bernal providing halftime and post-game analysis.
The seventh seeded Tars are coming off a thrilling SSC Championship run a week ago, that was capped by a 71-70 win over Palm Beach Atlantic in the title game. Rollins took care of sixth seeded Lynn and second seeded Eckerd in the previous two contest.
Rollins comes into the game shooting 42 percent from the 3-point line as a team. They average 80.8 points a game on offense, while giving up 79 a night on the defensive end. Sam Philpott leads Rollins in scoring averaging 15 points a game- Jeff Merton puts up 14.4 a night- while grabbing a team leading 5.8 rebounds a night. Connor McKim, who was the hero in two of the three tournament wins in the conference tournament is averaging 10.5 points a night- while he dishes out 3.9 assists a game. Joey Galvis is in the top ten in the country in Division II and led the SSC with 74 steals in 31 games.
Valdosta State (26-5) was ranked 16th in the latest NABC Division II coaches poll. The last time out they were a 94-91 loser to Alabama Huntsville in a winner take all contest to host the South Region. The Blazers are a member of the Gulf South Conference and have won seven of the past eight. As a team the Blazers averaging 88.7 points a game on offense- while defensively they give up 78.5 per contest. Six players score in double figures for Valdosta led by Jeremiah Hill who is scoring 16.9 per game- Hill also leads the team in assists (4.3 per game) and steals with just under two per contest. Sadie Muhhamed and Jimmy Kodet both have had big years. The two have combined for 51 blocked shots on the season. Muhhamed leads the team averaging 6.7 rebounds a night.
The last time the two teams met was in the 2010 SSC- GSC crossover. Valdosta was a 93-83 winner in that one. Rollins is 7-6 all time in the first round of the NCAA tournament and 2-1 as the 7th seed.
The line presented by JuanBernalSportsBooks.com:
Valdosta State by 6.5
Other South Region Games and Lines Saturday:
#4 Barry -4.5 vs #5 Eckerd
#3 Delta State -6 vs Christian Brothers
#1 Alabama-Huntsville -11.5 vs #8 Clark-Atlanta
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