Tars Hang On Against Ave Maria.

The Rollins College Tars improved to 3-0 on the season and handed Ave Maria  (4-1) there first loss of the young campaign with a 84-75 win at Warden Arena on Monday night.  Tom Klusman posted win number 696 of his illustrious career.
  Rollins had five players score in double figures led by Jakobi Bonner's 20 points. Bonner added a career high 12 rebounds as well.  Sheldon Oduna scored a career high 13 points- Connor McKim added 11- while Daniel Loh and Parker Davis netted 10 points each. Klusman had to juggle his rotation a bit as both Eric Castaneda and Hutton Yenor were unavailable after injuries over the weekend.  The Tars shot 54 percent and out rebounded AMU 45-28.  Rollins shot 41 percent (7-17) from the 3-point line in the contest.  Rollins struggled at the free throw shooting at a 63 percent clip (19-30.) The Tars had 14 assists as a team but also had 22 turnovers in the contest.
  The Gyrenes were led by 22 points from Romello Bates- while Greenan Sullivan chipped in 19. One of the biggest stories of the game was the Rollins zone defense that held Ave Maria leading scorer Leo Behrend to nine points. The zone also forced the Gyrenes to shoot just 33 percent (14-42) from the 3-point line.  AMU shot 60 percent (3-5) from the free throw line.  The Gyrenes had 14 assists and 14 turnovers in the contest.
  Rollins jumped out to a 19-10 lead midway thru the opening stanza, before Ave Maria would fight back to knot the score at 31 with 3:27 to go in the half.  Davis converted a conventional three-point play to give the Tars a lead they would not relinquish.  After a Ave Maria bucket the Tars would get a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Odunna to take a 37-33 halftime lead.  
   Rollins would come out hot in the second half and go on a 10-2  run that would give them a 13 point lead (51-38) with 16:14 to go.  The Gyrenes would not go quietly though.  After a 13-1 run by Ave Maria they would be within two (65-63) with 5:27 to go.  After a Davis free throw, Loh would hit back to back buckets to put the Tars in control.  AMU would get to within five (80-75)but that is as close as they would get as the Tars would win 84-75.
  The Tars next game will be on November 19th at 7 PM when they host Southeastern University.  As always you can watch live on the Tars Sports network at RollinsSports.com and listen on 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park.