ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (February 28, 2009) –
Rollins sealed up the 12th Sunshine State Conference Championship
in program history Saturday as the 22nd ranked Tars downed Eckerd
71-62 in the regular season finale for both schools.
Rollins led from start to finish and will head into next week's
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida Sunshine State Conference
Tournament as the top seed.
Rollins ends the regular season 23-4 overall; 12-4 in conference
play, and will share the title with Tampa who also ended the season
at 12-4 after a win over Lynn Saturday night.
Seniors Ines
Teuma and Rachael
Malatesta each netted 11 points to lead the Tars with Teuma
also gathering a game-high nine boards. In all, 10 of the 11
players who saw action for the Tars scored.
Javiera Novion tallied a game-high 19 points to lead Eckerd
(16-11, 9-7 SSC) while Stephanie Grace chipped in 14.
Rollins shot 41 percent (24-of-58) in the game and held the
Tritons to 39 percent (21-of-53) from the floor. Eckerd held a
slight edge on the boards over the Tars, 35-34.
Malatesta started the game with a triple on the Tars first
possession as Rollins opened up an 11-4 lead through the first five
minutes. Eckerd came back to knot the score at 13, but the Tars
went on a 14-6 spurt, punctuated by another Malatesta 3-pointer, to
take an eight point lead with six minutes to go.
After going into the break up 35-30, Rollins couldn't shake
Eckerd until an 11-1 run put the Tars up 50-39 halfway through the
second period. EC got to within six, 61-55 with less than five
minutes to play, but the Tars hit 7-of-8 from the stripe in crunch
time to post the nine point victory.
Rollins was picked to finish fifth in the SSC preseason poll,
but led in the league standings from start to finish. The title is
the 12th in the program's history and third in the last four years.
The championship is the second for Rollins this sports season
(women's soccer) and is the 55th for the College.
Rollins will host the first round of the Blue Cross Blue Shield
Sunshine State Conference Tournament on Wednesday, March 4 at 5:30
p.m. in Warden Arena. Fans can catch all the action live on the
Citizens Bank of Florida Tars Sports Network at
RollinsSports.com
