Bench Bunch Lifts Tars Past Saint Leo.

The Rollins College Tars got one step closer to a Sunshine State Conference regular season title with a 70-64 win at Saint Leo Saturday. The Tars with the win improved to 21-4 (12-2 SSC). St.Leo fell to 11-17 (4-10 SSC). The win was the fourth straight for the Tars. They now have a one game lead on second place Florida Southern with two remaining.

Rollins tallied five players in double figures Saturday. Ryan Ferranti set a new career high with 14 points for Rollins. Myk Brown and Nikola Baran posted 12 points each. Nick Wolf continued his streak of consecutive games scoring in double digits to 59. He had his fifth double-double in the past 6 games. Wolf had 11 points and 12 rebounds. Brock Blanchard was a big contributor off the bench going 2 of 3 from long range and scoring 10 points.

St.Leo had three players in double figures. Josie Vazquez and Jeremy Jackson each had 14 points. Jordan Prais posted a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards. While the Tars are battling to win the regular season title, the Lions are fighting just to make the Sunshine State Conference Tournament (only 8 of 9 teams make it). St.Leo and Florida Tech are each 4-10 at the moment with Tampa at 4-11.

St.Leo out shot the Tars 52 percent to 42 percent from the field. The Tars were just 33 percent shooters in the second half. St.Leo won the battle on the glass 34-27. The biggest difference in this one was miscues. St.Leo had 18 miscues on the day while the Tars committed just six.

Rollins got off to a quick start led by a pair of Nikola Baran triples they would lead 13-10 after five minutes. St. Leo then went on a 14-3 run and would lead 24-16 midway thru the half. The Tars would take control in the last ten minutes of the half and would lead 41-29 at the half. The Tars had a very scary moment in this game. Ian Scott was undercut on a fast break and landed awkwardly on his foot. Scott had to sit the rest of the game. The Tars at the moment only have an 8 man rotation. Leo would get to within three but Nick Wolf would have a old fashioned three point play to get the Tars back on track. Saint Leo would make another run late and after a trey by Dominick Robinson it would be 63-61 Tars with 2:13 to go. Matt Robertson and Julian Wilkison would sink a pair of free throws each to seal it for the Tars. Rollins will finnish the regular season with a pair of home games at Warden arena. Rollins will entertain Florida Tech at home on Wednesday night at 7:30 and then Saturday the Tars will host Eckerd at 4 PM. Florida Southern will be at Tampa Wednesday before closing out the regular season at home vs Nova Southeastern.