SAINT LEO, Fla. (February12, 2025) - Men's basketball suffered their first loss in three weeks on Wednesday, falling to the Saint Leo Lions 80-65. The Tars now stand at 15-9 with a 8-7 record in the SSC. The Lions improve to 10-14, 5-11 SSC.
Rollins held an early lead with the first five points of the game, but Saint Leo soon found their way on the board and tied the game. The game remained within a couple of possessions until the Tars managed 7-0 run thanks to five bench points from
Ian Hart.
After holding the Lions under ten points in the first ten minutes of the game, they finally broke though against the Tars defense and captured a 23-21 lead at the seven-minute mark.
Beau Frericks hit a three with three minutes to go in the half, but Saint Leo managed the last five points of the half to take a 38-31 lead.
Saint Leo shot 57% from the floor while Rollins managed 48% in the first half.
The Lions extended their lead to eleven points as Rollins struggled to get going. They did not score in the second half until a Frericks layup at the 16:16 mark. That sparked a quick 10-0 Rollins run that saw
Emilis Butkus and
Sergey Grishaev knock down a couple threes to make it 42-41.
Butkus stayed hot, scoring the next seven points for Rollins, even giving them a 48-47 lead. The next few minutes saw multiple ties and lead changes as the two teams went back-and-forth with makes.
Michael Niemann nailed a triple at 10:20 to tie the game at 53. That would be the last make for the Tars for a long while as Saint Leo went on a 16-0 run, putting the game out of reach.
Frericks led the Tars with 21 points on 8-11 shooting and four assists. Butkus was good for 19 points and nine rebounds, while Grishaev scored twelve with nine boards as well. Brady Corso knocked down six threes en route to a game-high 23 points to lead the Lions.
Next up for Rollins is a road game at Lynn on Saturday. Tipoff from Boca Raton is scheduled for 4:00 pm, following the women's ga,e.
