WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (November 30, 2022) - An incredibly tight matchup turned one-sided in the waning moments on Wednesday evening as Palm Beach Atlantic defeated Rollins 93-89 on their home court. With the loss, Rollins moves to 3-3, with a 0-2 record in SSC play
The Tars came out of the gates scorching hot, scoring the first eight points of the game with a
Matheus Silveira layup and threes from
Hutton Yenor and
Cody Potter. At the first media timeout, the Tars held a 12-8 advantage.
The Sailfish got hot coming out of the break, knocking down threes on three straight possessions to take a 17-16 lead. Moments later,
John Latimer III came off the bench to provide a spark for the Tars' offense. He nailed a triple to give them a 21-20 lead, and would add three more from distance in the half to give him a team-high fourteen points at the break.
Palm Beach Atlantic stayed hot from outside, and came all the way back from nine down to capture a 40-39 lead off a Marcus Montalvo three. The final 68 seconds of play saw two dunks, two layups, and a fadeaway buzzer beater from
Cade Long to give Rollins a 48-44 advantage at the break.
Rollins maintained their lead up until 12:38 left in the second half when the Sailfish tied the game on a Bryce Laskey three-pointer. Rollins' response was to work the ball down low where they converted on a baby hook from
Jaden Frazier, a dunk by Yenor, and a layup by Yenor to make it 70-67 with eleven minutes to play.
After the two teams swapped leads for the next few minutes, a run from Rollins, sparked by a huge blocked dunk and a corner triple from
Sergey Grishaev had the Tars up 85-78 with 4:31 to play.
A timeout allowed the Sailfish to regroup as well as take the momentum away from Rollins. Palm Beach Atlantic went on a 13-0 run that included three threes from Laskey to put them up 91-85.
The Tars pulled within two with eight seconds to go, but solid free throw shooting from the Sailfish, as well as a struggle to hold on to the ball from Rollins, led to a final score of 93-89.
Yenor and
Kyle Marion tied for the team lead with 21 points apiece. Latimer III poured in a career-high 16 off the bench. As a team, the Tars shot an impressive 58/1% from the floor, including 43.5% from distance (10-23). However it wasn't enough to stop the red-hot Sailfish who saw Will Lee and Bryce Laskey shoot 12-21 from beyond the arc.
Rollins will host the Flagler Saints on Saturday, December 3rd. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm at the Warden Arena.
