MELBOURNE, Fla. (February 4, 2026) - Men's basketball suffered a tough loss on the road at Florida Tech on Wednesday, falling by a score of 83-74. The loss moves the Tars to 12-10, 6-8 SSC on the year while the Panthers improve to 9-13, 5-9 SSC.
Rollins could not have gotten off to a better start. Back-to-back layups from
Ricky Ghedini and
Mayson Quartlebaum, a three from
Omar Figueroa, and four more points in the paint had the Tars up 11-0 at the 15-minute mark.
Tech finally put points on the board on a three with 14:21 to go in the first half, and they slowly climbed back into the game as they knocked down a number of threes. A steal and dunk then tied the game at 17 with just under eight minutes to go. Minutes later, a three from Ghedini tied the game again at 23 with 4:45 to go. However, that would be the last made field goal of the half for Rollins, and they trailed 33-26 at the break.
After the hot start, Rollins ended up shooting just 34% from the floor in the first, including 2-12 from three.
The Panthers were hot to start the second half, and soon had a 13-point lead. Quartlebaum went to work in the paint, followed by triples from
Jah Nze and Figueroa to pull the Tars within two possessions.
The momentum was short-lived though, and the offense soon hit a cold spell of more than four minutes. During that time, Florida Tech grew their lead to 18 points at 59-41.
Though the score proved to much to overcome, Rollins did make it a little closer with a 13-3 run late in the game, sparked by ten straight points from Nze. A layup from Figueroa with twenty seconds to go wrapped up the scoring for Rollins, making the final of 83-74.
Nze led the team with 21 points, including five made threes. Quartlebaum turned in his second-straight 20-point effort, going 8-11 from the floor. Figueroa added 17 points, seven assists, and four steals. Ghedini also stuffed the stat sheet with eleven points, seven boards, and four dimes.
Next up for the Tars is a home game against Florida Southern on Saturday, January 7. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:00pm, following the girl's game.
