WINTER PARK, Fla. (January 2, 2019) – Rollins suffered its first Sunshine State Conference loss of the season, falling to Nova Southeastern 71-66 on Wednesday.
The Tars (7-4, 4-1 SSC) spotted the Sharks (7-5, 3-2 SSC) a 24-point halftime lead and trailed by as many as 27 in the third quarter. Rollins whittled the NSU advantage down to five with a minute to go, but the comeback ran out of time.
Yari Martinez-Toro led the Tars with 19 points while Carly McLendon tallied 13 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Jaylyn Harrison netted 10 off the bench to go along with five assists.
Clarie McMahon paced NSU, scoring 17 points. Alison Hughes scored 14 and Maria Bardeeva netted 11.
The Sharks came out of the gate on fire and put the Tars down 26-14 after the first quarter. The onslaught continued into the second as Rollins was staring at a 49-25 halftime hole.
Things turned around for the Tars in the second half as they chipped away at the lead and used a 12-3 run to get to within 60-49 early in the fourth quarter. After NSU pushed its advantage back to 14, 68-54 with 5:51 left, Rollins rattled off a 9-0 run and pulled to within 68-63 with 1:09 left.
The Sharks struggled from the free throw line down the stretch, but Rollins couldn't capitalize on the offensive end.
The Tars shot 42 percent from the field while NSU hit 48 percent. The Sharks were just 12-of-27 at the free throw line and Rollins hit 7-of-12. Both teams had 35 rebounds.
Rollins is back in action on Saturday, January 5, hosting Barry at 2 p.m. Fans can catch the action live on the Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com and locally on 91.5 FM WPRK.
