WINTER PARK, Fla. (November 23, 2024) - Men's basketball hung tough with the top-ranked team in the country, but could not hang in for a full forty minutes, falling 109-94 to Nova Southeastern on Saturday. The loss moves Rollins to 3-3 on the year and 0-2 in SSC play.
The first ten minutes of the game absolutely belonged to the Tars as they jumped out to an early lead. Baskets from
Emilis Butkus,
Ian Hart,
Beau Frericks,
Sergey Grishaev, and
Michael Kalina had Rollins looking at a 14-6 lead at the first media timeout.
Moments later, both Grishaev and Hart knocked down open threes to put Rollins up 22-8, their biggest advantage of the game. After a small Sharks run to make the game closer, Butkus scored five straight for the Tars to keep them ahead 26-19.
The Sharks would go on an 8-0 run to claim their first lead of the game at 29-28, but free throws from Hart put the Tars back in the lead. After Nova Southeastern took a 35-30 lead, Frericks knocked down a three, followed by a steal and layup from
John Latimer III to tie the game at 35.
A Frericks three with 30 seconds left gave Rollins a 53-52 lead, but the Sharks scored four points in the last four seconds to take a 56-53 advantage to the halftime break.
Nova Southeastern was the recipient of a number of foul calls to close the half out, leading to a substantial difference in free throw attempts. In the first half, Nova was awarded 25 free throws compared to only 11 for the Tars. They knocked down 21 of the freebies against the Tars' nine, giving them a big advantage.
Rollins scored on their first two possessions of the second half to retake the lead, but a three and a layup from Tyler Eberhart gave Nova the lead right back. In fact, Rollins would fail to tie or lead the game for the remaining 18 minutes of play.
Nova Southeastern used a 12-point run to stake a large lead in the game that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the contest. The lead grew as high as 19, but Rollins stayed in the fight and continued to chip away.
A pair of threes from Grishaev, as well as two free throws from Butkus, cut the Shark lead to single digits, but it would get no closer than nine points for the rest of the game.
Every time Rollins tried to make a move, the Sharks had an answer. In the last few minutes, bench players found themselves on the floor.
Ian Hart had the final two points of the game on a putback dunk with under ten seconds to play, but it was too little, too late as the final score reached 109-94.
Butkus was the top scorer for the Tars with 23 points on 10-16 from the floor. Grishaev added 22 points and five rebounds. Only six Tars would score in the game, five of which reached double figures. Ross Reeves led all scorers with 29 points.
Next up for Rollins is a home game with Puerto Rico Bayamon on Wednesday, November 27. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 pm.
