ORLANDO, Fla. (November 18, 2005) ' Rollins traveled down the road
to UCF and gave the Golden Knights all they could handle for 40
minutes, but came up on the short end of a 68-58 score Friday
night. The two schools were renewing a classic rivalry in front of
a packed house at UCF as the Tars and Knights have not matched-up
since 1998.
'
John
Thinnes was 5-8 from beyond the arc and poured in 20 points to lead
the Tars (1-1) offense while Jonny Reibel played the entire game
and added 14. Deon Troupe led Rollins on the boards with seven
while Greg Sweeney and Jon Smith each gathered six. ' Troy Lindbeck
came off the bench and dropped 20 on 5-9 shooting from long range
to lead UCF (1-0) with Justin Rose putting up 12 and Anthony
Williams added 10.
'
Not
backing down one bit to the Division I Golden Knights, Rollins
packed the middle on defense and kept the ball moving on offense
and opened up an 11-7 lead after the first seven minutes. Thinnes
and Sweeney each drained a pair of three's during the stretch with
Reibel also adding a hoop. UCF then rattled off five quick points
to take a one point lead only to have a Thinnes layup and Reibel
long ball swing the momentum back to Rollins and put the Tars up
four, 16-12. The Knights then went on a 9-2 run and grabbed a 32-23
advantage with 1:32 to play in the half. Kevin Hogan knocked down a
trey and Sweeney added a lay up down the stretch for Rollins to
make the score 32-28 at the break.
'
Thinnes began the second half the same as the first as he hit a
long three pointer right out of the gate to put Rollins to within
one. The teams traded baskets for the next eight minutes as a
Reibel layup with 12:01 to go made the score 42-39 in favor of UCF.
The host then rolled up a 12-4 run over the next four minutes and
jumped out to a 54-40 lead. After a Tars timeout, Reibel drained a
three and was followed by back-to-back long balls from Thinnes to
pull the Tars to within five at 54-49. That would be as close as
the Tars would get, however as UCF outscored the visitors 14-9 down
the stretch for the 10 point win.
'
Rollins shot 36 percent for the game and only 35% in the second
half. ' The Golden Knights big bodied defense forced the Tars to
extend their offense back to the perimeter. ' The result was a lot
of jump shots in the second half on tired legs. ' The Knights being
the bigger teamed pounded the ball inside and out-rebounded the
Tars. ' The Knights grabbed 45 boards to the Tars 32. '
'
The Tars will be back in
action on Monday when they will welcome West Florida into the
Alfond Sports Center. ' The Tars defeated the Argonauts 74-60. ' In
that game last season, Deon Troupe and John Thinnes each dropped 16
points. ' The game will start at 7:30pm in Warden Arena.
