Rollins Defeats PBA to Close Regular Season

Rollins

97 -

90

PBA

Box Score

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (February 27, 2016) - The Tars closed out their regular season schedule on Saturday, traveling to Palm Beach Atlantic and eventually knocked off the Sailfish, 97-90.

Rollins finished the regular season at 21-7 while the Sailfish conclude their year at 12-14. The 21 wins are the most for the Tars since the 2010-11 season when they finished 25-7.

Jeff Merton led the way for Rollins with 21 points on 7-11 shooting, including 3-5 from beyond the arc while Sam Philpott finished with a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Sharif Almulla, James Ferrell and Mike Bedulskis all had 12.

Bakari Warthen matched Merton with 21 for the Sailfish with Nigel Sydnor scoring 20 to go along with seven boards.

For the game, the Tars shot 54 percent from the field and outrebounded PBA, 37-31.

Both teams traded buckets in the early going with four lead changes in the opening three minutes before being tied at 7-7 at the 17-minute mark.

The Sailfish would take a 12-9 lead a minute and a half later before a quick 11-2 Rollins run gave the Tars 20-14 lead with 10:59 on the clock in the first half.

PBA came back to erase the deficit scoring nine unanswered to regain the lead, 25-23, at the 8:07 mark.

The game would continue to go back and forth from there as the lead would change hands three more times over the next four minutes. The Sailfish would eventually jump out to their largest lead of the half, 42-33, with 3:20 left in the period.

PBA would push their lead to 12 late in the half before a 5-0 Rollins run, all courtesy of Philpott, made it 47-40 at intermission. Philpott scored 12 in the first half and grabbed five boards while Merton added seven. As a team, the Tars shot 46 percent from the field in the period and went 6-8 from the line.

The Rollins run would continue into the second half as the Tars scored the first six points of the period before going up five, 54-49, at the 16:35 mark. In total, it was a 17-2 run that started at the started before halftime.

Later in the half, a Merton three from in front of the Rollins bench would give the Tars are 61-55 lead with 13:35 on the clock as Rollins continued to work to hold of the Sailfish. The Rollins advantage would fluctuate between three and six points over the next five-plus minutes with the Tars holding a 70-66 lead at the 8:26 mark.

PBA went on to pull within one before the Tars came back with three's on back-to-back possessions push it to a seven point game, 78-71, with 5:58 left.

The Sailfish would twice pull within two down the stretch but the Tars sealed the win with timely buckets and were nearly perfect from the line.

Rollins will be back in action on Wednesday, March 2 in the SSC Tournament quarterfinal. With Barry defeating Eckerd on Saturday, it created a three-way tie for the conference regular season title between Rollins, Barry and Eckerd. By way of tiebreakers, Rollins will serve as the three seed and will host six-seeded Lynn at 7 p.m.

Semifinals and finals will be held at the ICI Center on the campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. The men's tournament moves to the ICI Center after three years at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee. Prior to Silver Spurs Arena, the tournaments were held at member institutions from 2002 to 2012. SSC tournament play begins on Wednesday, March 2nd and concludes on Sunday, March 6th.