MELBOURNE , Fla. (December 3, 2005) The Rollins College men's
basketball team opened up the Sunshine State Conference season with
a big road victory over the Florida Tech Panthers, 83-55. Sophomore
point guard Jonny Reibel had a career night for the Tars. The 6'1
Chicago , Illinois native scored 15 points, and added new career
highs in rebounds with 10 and assists with 10. It was the first
triple double of the season for any Sunshine State Conference
player. The Tars are now over .500 at 3-2 while Florida Tech moves
to 2-4.
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Junior Deon Troupe had another big night for the Tars as well.
Troupe was one of three Tars that finished with 15 points, as he
shot five of ten from the floor and three of six from beyond the
arc. Junior forward Isaac Codrey added 15 points on six of eight
shooting. Codrey came off the bench in only his second game back,
returning from an injury that kept him out of the Tars first three
contests. Sophomore forward, Chauncey Gibbs, did a terrific job on
the glass as he finished with eight boards, five coming on the
offensive side.
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Florida Tech started off on fire from beyond the arc at the
beginning of the first half. Panther guards E.J. Murray and Brad
Rich hit three straight long range shots for the Panthers to give
them an early 9-5 lead. But the Tars were able to match the
Panthers offensive onslaught. Rollins went on a 19-8 run capped off
by a Nate Rusbosin lay-in to give themselves a 24-17 lead with just
over seven minutes to play. Then at the end of the half, Kevin
Hogan took a pass from Jonny Reibel and buried a clutch three
pointer with just under a minute to play to put the Tars up 43-28.
The Tars went into the locker room at the half with a 15 point
lead.
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Rollins came out and buried the Panthers in the first part of the
second half. The Tars used a 23 to nine run in the first 11 minutes
of the second half to create some distance between themselves and
Tech. The Rollins defense absolutely shut down the Panthers for
much of the second stanza. The Tars held Tech scoreless for over
eight minutes down the stretch in the second half. Rollins would
lead by as much as 30 in the half and cruise to a 28 point
victory.
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The
Tars shot 50 percent overall from the floor for the second straight
game. Rollins dominated the Panthers in the paint 36-14, and the
Tars bench exploded for 39 points to the Panthers' seven. Rollins
also capitalized on the Panthers mistakes as the Tars scored 20
points off of Tech's 20 turnovers.
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Rollins will be back in action again on December 13 when they will
host Webber International. That game will start at 7:00 pm in
Warden Arena. From there the Tars will head to Las Vegas for the
High Desert Classic where they will square off against Central
Arkansas on December 17 and Central Missouri State on December 18.
Both games will begin at 12 pm Pacific time and 3 pm eastern time.
Both games will also be broadcast on WPRK and over the internet on
the WPRK website.
