WINTER PARK, Fla. (February 15, 2020) – Behind a frantic full court press in the final minutes, Rollins nearly erased a late 14 point deficit, but ran out of time as the Tars lost to Barry 84-79.
Senior Jakobi Bonner led the way with 19 points for the shorthanded Tars (12-12, 6-10 SSC), who have been suffering through injuries to key players. Connor Mckim scored 17 and Dayton Gumm added 11 points and five assists.
Barry moved to 17-7 overall and 11-6 in the conference. Tylan Birts scored 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting to led the Bucs. Evan Walshe added 21 points and Jake Kakar recorded 11 points and eight rebounds.
The Tars shot just 21 percent to Barry's 50 percent in the first half and fell into an 11-point hole by intermission. Both teams were on fire in the second with Rollins hitting 59 percent and the Bucs only missing seven shots (18-25). For the game, the Tars hit 41 percent (25-of-61) and Barry 60 percent (32-53).
Rollins was beat on the glass 41-29, but forced 18 turnovers and committing just 11.
Offense was hard to come by at the start with Barry holding a 13-12 lead after 13 minutes of play. The Bucs went on a late run to close the first grabbed a 33-22 advantage going into the half.
Over the first 14 minutes of the second, Rollins would get as close at four while not allowing Barry to run away and keeping the deficit to single digits.
A Birts layup with 3:08 left put the Bucs up 72-58. Mckim drilled a three-pointer on the next possession and was followed by a Gumm steal and dunk to cut the lead to nine. Trevor Recio then got a steal off the press and fed Bonner for the hoop and harm, pulling the Tars to within 72-66 with 2:16 to play.
Barry scored on a couple of runouts to keep the Tars at bay before Gumm converted a three-point play with 1:13 left to make it a 74-71 game.
The Bucs were able to break the press on its next two possessions and pushed the led back to 77-71 with just under a minute to play. Gumm hit a deep three-pointer with 41 seconds left to again pull Rollins to within three, but the Tars didn't get back on defense and Walshe scored a quick lay-up.
Parker Davis came up big with a three-pointer in transition for the Tars and cut the deficit to 79-77 with 30 seconds left.
The game turned into a free throw contest from then on with the Bucs going 5-of-6 at the line to ice the game.
Rollins will look to bounce back on Wednesday, February 19 in the penultimate home game of the season, hosting Lynn. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m. in Warden Arena. Fans can catch the action live on the Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com and locally on 91.5 FM WPRK.
