CLEVELAND,
Miss. (March 12, 2006) ' The
clock struck midnight on the Rollins men's basketball season as the
sixth seeded Tars were bounced out of the NCAA Tournament by second
seeded Montevallo 81-68 on Sunday. The Falcons were on fire in the
first half and jumped out to a 20 point halftime lead while Rollins
struggled from the field all night. The loss ends Rollins
Cinderella season with a record of 24-8 while Montevallo moves to
28-4 and will play either host Delta State or Arkansas-Monticello
in the South Region Championship.
Freshman Greg Sweeney
was the Tars spark off the bench and paced Rollins with 16 points
and a team high seven rebounds. Jonny Reibel poured in 13 points to
go along with six rebounds while Isaac Codrey added 10.
The Falcons put four
players in double figures, led by James Hall with 18. Marcus
Kennedy added 15, Grant Urbanski put up 14 and Greg Brown netted 11
points.
UM shot a blistering 50
percent (16-32) from the field in the first half before cooling off
in the second and ending the game at 37 percent (25-66). Rollins
hit for only 33 percent (10-30) in the first period, but finished
strong and ended the game at 38 percent (22-57). Montevallo owned
the boards as they out rebounded the smaller Tars 46-35.
It was a dog fight in
the beginning as both schools traded three pointers for the first
five minutes. Reibel connected on a long ball to put the Tars up
9-7 at the 15:46 mark, but Kennedy hit a lay-up, followed by a Hall
trey to put UM on top 12-9. Kevin Hogan hit a three for Rollins to
make the score 15-12 with 13 minutes to go, but Rollins then went
ice cold from the field and the Falcons kept on rolling to extend
their lead to 47-27 at the break.
Montevallo stayed hot
through the first part of the second half and Rollins had no answer
as the Falcons lead ballooned to 29, 65-36 with 10:38 to go. The
Tars started to hit down the stretch and were able to shrink the
lead, but time ran out and Rollins' season ended in the final NCAA
32.
