WINTER PARK, Fla. (January 10, 2026) - Men's basketball put up a solid fight, but ran out of gas late in their 91-73 loss against #3 Nova Southeastern on Saturday. The Tars now stand at 9-7, 3-5 SSC on the year while the Sharks improve to 11-1, 6-1 SSC.
Rollins came out with a ton of energy, scoring the first five points of the game on a layup from
Omar Figueroa and three free throws from
Jah Nze. The lead climbed all the way up to eleven at 14-3 thanks to a pair of
Mayson Quartlebaum layups and free throws courtesy of
Jackson Gaffney right after the first media timeout.
The reigning national champion Sharks stayed calm and slowly chipped away at the lead. They tied the game at the 10:17 mark and had their first lead of the game on a Dallas Graziani jumper that made it 19-17 with 9:46 to go. The Tars were haunted by a stretch that saw them go scoreless for four minutes.
Nova Southeastern's unrelenting offense soon had them up 34-20, but the Tars showed plenty of fight as they began their comeback. Back-to-back threes from
Ricky Ghedini and Figueroa gave them momentum, followed by a layup from Gaffney and four free throws from the hands of Quartlebaum and Gaffney.
Staying with the free throw theme, a pair from Figueroa tied the game at 41 with under a minute to go in the first half. In the first twenty minutes, the Tars knocked down 16-17 free throw attempts. They trailed 43-21 at the break.
Gaffney added a triple at the beginning of the second half, but the offense once again had trouble scoring. After three fruitless minutes, Ghedini converted on three consecutive possessions to keep the game tied at 50.
After the Sharks regained a double digit lead, the Tars looked prime to come back once more when Figueroa and Ghedini splashed a pair from deep to make it a 60-59 game. However, a technical foul was called against the Tars'
Marshall Klug seconds later, and that call seemed to shift all the momentum to the Sharks. They immediately went on an 8-0 run, and outscored the Tars 31-14 in the final 8:49 of game time.
Turnovers plagued the Tars late, as did the Sharks knocking down more than 80% of their free throws.
Ghedini led the Tars with 16 points on 6-7 shooting. Figueroa added 15 with aa team-high four assists. Gaffney (11 points) was the only other Rollins player in double digits. Graziani and Ross Reeves each had 23 to lead the Sharks.
The Tars are off on Wednesday before hitting the road on Saturday, January 17 when they take on Palm Beach Atlantic. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:00 pm.
