Rollins Looks To Stay Hot As Panthers Come To Winter Park

 The Rollins College Tars (13-8 6-6 SSC) winners of two straight and five of the last seven contests look to stay hot as they welcome the Florida Tech Panthers (4-17 1-12 SSC) to Warden Arena inside the Alfond Sports Center tomorrow (Wednesday 2/5.) You can catch all the action on 91.5 FM WPRK Winter Park and on SunshineStateConference.TV with Robert Segal and Jim "Shooter" Ferro on the call. 

 Rollins is coming off a 73-69 upset of Palm Beach Atlantic that very well may have been the biggest win of the season to date. PBA is the only team thus far this season to beat conference leader and third ranked Nova Southeastern. The Tars used stifling defense and solid shooting to pull off the upset. Beau Frericks (18,) Emillis Butkus (17,) John Latimer (13,) and Matus Malovec (10) all scored in double figures in the win. Sergey Grishaev nearly had a double-double with nine points and a team leading 13 rebounds as well. Rollins shot 43.4 percent from the field, 33.3 percent (7-21) from the 3-point line, and 80 percent (20-25) at the free throw line. The story of the game for Rollins was at the defensive end where they held the Sailfish to 39.4 percent shooting and just 21.7 percent (5-23) from the 3-point line. The game featured 14 ties and 19 lead changes before the Tars emerged victorious. Rollins scores an SSC sixth best 84.5 points per game while they allow an SSC fifth best 79.1 points per night. The Tars are second in the conference shooting 49.2 percent while they lead the league shooting 37.9 percent from long range. The Tars shoot at a 76.6 percent clip from the free throw line which is second in the conference, they are seventh in rebounding margin at +2.1 (36.5-34.4) rebounds per night. The Tars are seventh in turnover margin (-0.76) and fifth in assist to turnover ratio (1.48.) They dish out an SSC fifth best 17.71 assists per game as well. The Tars continue to struggle guarding the 3-point line where they are 10th in the league as the opposition shoots 35.5 percent. They make 8.9 triples per game which is third in the SSC, block 3.14 shots per game which is seventh in the SSC, and swipe seven steals per game which is eighth in the SSC. Butkus leads the team and is sixth in the conference scoring 18.5 points per game. The native of Lithuania is seventh in the SSC shooting 54.1 percent from the field and shoots 37.6 percent from the 3-point line which is 11th in the SSC. Frericks is ninth in the SSC scoring 17.3 points per game, The native of Cary,Illinois shoots 50 percent from the field which is ninth in the conference, is second in the league in 3-point percentage (42.5 percent) and is also second in the SSC in free throw percentage (88.8 percent.) Frericks is eighth in the SSC dishing out four assists per game and is fifth in the conference in minutes played (33 per game.) Grishaev scores 16.2 per night while he leads the team and is 10th in the SSC grabbing 6.6 rebounds per night. The native of St.Petersburg,Russia also blocks an SSC fifth best 1.4 shots per contest. Latimer adds 14.5 points per game, shoots an SSC fourth best 86.9 percent at the free throw line, dishes out an SSC ninth best 3.8 assists per night and the Apopka product leads the team with 1.8 steals per game which is also top 10 in the SSC. In the first meeting with the Panthers back on New Year's Day (A 92-66 Rollins win) Butkus  had 25, Grishaev 20, Latimer notched 19 points and grabbed a team high 10 rebounds, and Frericks had 11. 

 Florida Tech is coming off a 71-69 win over Eckerd that was the team's first conference win of the season. That win snapped a 10 game losing streak overall for the Panthers. Max Polk poured in 32 to lead Florida Tech while Isaiah Edden had 14. The Panthers shot 43.6 percent from the field, 45 percent (9-20) from the 3-point line, and 73.7 percent (14-19) at the free throw line. The Panthers score an SSC worst 71 points per game while they give up an SSC seventh best 82.4 points per night. Tech shoots 41.2 percent from the field which is the bottom team in the conference but are seventh in 3-point percentage (34.9 percent) They shoot free throws at an SSC sixth best 72.3 percent clip as well. The Panthers are the worst rebounding team in the SSC being out rebounded 34.9-40.5. The Panthers are ninth in turnover margin (-1.57) and 10th in assist to turnover ratio (0.89.) They block an SSC eighth best 2.71 shots per game, dish out 10.29 assists per game (last in the SSC,) and get 5.71 steals per game (10th in the SSC.) They are sixth at guarding the 3-point line (33.8 percent.) They are eighth in 3-pointers made (7.5 per game) as well. Donovan Brown leads the Panthers and is third in the SSC scoring 21 points per game while Polk puts up 16.2 per night. ET Thiam leads the team in rebounding at 6.7 per game although he has only played nine games. Brown is 10th in the SSC in assists at 3.7 per night while Xavier Belton-Ford leads the team with one blocked shot per night. Polk is third in the SSC in minutes played at 36 per game. In the loss to Rollins back in January Brown had 28 and Polk notched 26. The Panthers shot 36.4 percent from the field, 40 percent (14-35) from the 3-point line, and 57.1 percent (4-7) from the free throw line in that one. 

The line presented by JuanBernalSportsbooks.com: Rollins by 9 

Other SSC Lines Wednesday: 

Barry -7 @ Saint Leo 

Nova Southeastern -17.5 @ Tampa 

Florida Southern -10 @Eckerd 

Lynn -6 @ Embry-Riddle 

SSC Standings: 

Nova Southeastern 11-1 (19-1) 

Florida Southern 9-3 (18-4) 

Lynn 9-4 (14-5) 

Palm Beach Atlantic 8-5 (15-6) 

Embry-Riddle 8-5 (14-7) 

Rollins 6-6 (13-8) 

Tampa 6-7 (14-7) 

Barry 5-8 (9-12) 

Eckerd 4-9 (9-12) 

Saint Leo 3-10 (8-13) 

Florida Tech 1-12 (4-17)