Rollins Tars out, UCF Knights still have a shot

Rollins

Rollins’ two wins over Lynn this year were two of their largest margins of victory all season, then they met in the first round of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament and it all got turned upside down for the Tars in an 85-72 loss.

After beating Lynn 85-69 and then 85-68, the Tars seemed ready to handle a third meeting before they played host in the SSC’s quarterfinal on March 2.

The Tars (21-8) rolled into the tournament as the No. 3 seed of eight teams given an invite. Lynn (13-14) was seeded No. 6.

For most of the game, the Tars were in command, leading for almost every second of the game until the final 10 minutes of the second half. The score was 55-52 and by then the Tars were already beginning to fall apart. A three-shot lead that the Tars had held for most of the game rapidly had collapsed to almost nothing in the span of 2 minutes.

When Lynn grabbed the lead with just over 9 minutes left to play, the Tars couldn’t have known it was the closest that they would ever be to recapturing it. Lynn, having trailed the entire game, suddenly went on a wild scoring run while Rollins missed eight straight shots. In the span of 6 minutes the Tars went from leading by eight points to losing by eight.

Battling back, the Tars managed to pull within five points with just more than two minutes left. That’s when Lynn’s offensive engine cranked up again, putting the Tars behind for good. Rollins missed seven shots as Lynn widened the gap to as many as 14 points before settling at 13 as the clock expired.

In the effort Sam Philpott led the Tars with 14 points and five rebounds. Alex Blessig wasn’t far behind with 12 points and five rebounds.

For the Tars, the season ended on their home court that night.

UCF

After losing 10 of their last 11 games, the Knights men’s basketball team took their last plausible shot at a win against Tulane on March 2 at CFE Arena, and snapped a massive losing skid. The 73-65 win temporarily stopped a team in freefall, having lost all but one of their games since January.

It was senior night for a trio of players, and Daiquan Walker took full advantage of the spotlight to post his second straight 20-point game. He led the team in scoring, with freshman giant Tacko Fall putting on a post play clinic with 17 points and 13 rebounds, plus five blocks. Senior Staphon Blair grabbed six rebounds and four points. Shaheed Davis picked up four rebounds.

One game later, the Knights were blown out by UConn in Storrs, 67-46. It was the second-lowest-scoring performance the Knights had given this season. The only one that was worse was a 41-point snoozer, also against UConn.

Unexpectedly, the Knights blasted out to an eight-point lead within the first 3 minutes of the game against the Huskies (21-10, 11-7). Five minutes later, the Knights relinquished the lead and only took it back momentarily before it was lost for good. The Huskies would turn their shooting up to 11 and blow the game wide open in the second half.

The Knights were held to 34.8 percent shooting in the game, with the Huskies’ disciplined play causing few foul shots to make up the difference in shot accuracy. Fall led the Knights with 13 points and five rebounds, and A.J. Davis was just behind with 12 points.

The Huskies buried enough of their 53 shot attempts to easily cruise to victory.

Now that the regular season is over, the Knights (12-17, 6-12) are headed to a home away from home, Orlando’s Amway Center, for the American Athletic Conference Tournament.

Tonight the Knights get to determine whether their season ends or if they make an unexpected late season surge after falling apart in conference play. The game starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, with the Knights facing the only conference foe they’ve beaten since the last week of January: Tulane. The Knights haven’t lost a basketball game to the Green Wave since Valentine’s Day of 2007, when they fell 86-80 in New Orleans.

If the Knights can pull off a win, they’ll have a date with Houston (22-8, 12-6) on Friday.

Winter Park baseball

The Wildcats baseball team is off to an 8-4 start after a string of four wins on the way into March.

They started the streak off with a 16-13 slugfest at Freedom on Feb. 25 that featured nine runs scored in the first three innings. The Wildcats had 18 hits in the game.

The next game the Wildcats’ game plan was flipped on its head as they found themselves in a pitchers’ duel against East River that ended with a 2-1 win.

After that Winter Park faced University in back-to-back games, traveling first and leaving with an 8-5 win, then coming home and edging the Cougars 6-5.

Wednesday night the Wildcats hosted Colonial (3-6) at press time. They’ll hit the road to take on Colonial at 7 p.m. Friday before coming home to host Timber Creek (8-2) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Edgewater baseball

The Eagles are 3-6-1 after taking a season that started off with a seven-game winless streak and turned into a series of wins shortly after district play started.

On March 2 the Eagles beat Olympia (9-3) by a score of 10-6. The Eagles host Matanzas (4-7-1) at 4 p.m. today before traveling to Freedom (4-7) with the first pitch at 4 p.m. Monday.