Slow First Half Dooms Clippers
Slow First Half Dooms Clippers
Winter Park, FL - The Concordia College men's basketball team was defeated by the Tars of Rollins College 93-67 last night in the Winter Park Rotary Tangerine Tournament hosted by Rollins College at Warden Gymnasium in Winter Park, FL. The Clippers suffer their third loss in a row and fall to 2-10 overall. The Tars improve to 7-3 on the season.
Concordia was led by sophomore Samuel Batista (Carolina, Puerto Rico), who posted a team high 15 points and a team high 8 rebounds. Junior Kenny Gaskins (Bronx, NY) recorded a double-double with 14 points and a season high 10 assists. Gaskins also had 7 rebounds and 6 steals.
In the first half, senior Dan Cunningham (Ulster Park, NY) drove in for a lay-up to cut the Clipper deficit to 4 points at 13-9. The Tars would take control of the game by scoring 17 straight points to take a 30-9 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the opening period. A basket by freshman Daniel Olsen (Stafford, CT) stopped the Tars' scoring run. Olsen finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Rollins would obtain their largest lead of 31 points at the 3:56 mark of the half and take a 50-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Clippers shot 10 for 31 (32.3%) from the floor in the first half, including 0 for 9 from 3-point range compared to the Tars 14 for 27 (51.9%) and 11 for 18 (61.1%) from long distance. Rollins held a decisive advantage at the free throw line, shooting 18 foul shots compared to 7 for the Clippers.
In the second half, the Clippers fought back midway through the period with a 14-2 scoring run to cut the deficit to 73-60 with 5 minutes remaining. However, the Tars would out score Concordia 20-7 the rest of the way for the win. Concordia dominated inside the paint, outscoring the Tars 34-14 and finished with 19 points off of turnovers by Rollins College. The Clipper bench was outscored 27-13 by the Tars bench.
For Rollins College, Jeremy Sharpe and Nick Wolf each finished with 21 points. Wolf collected 9 rebounds and Sharpe had 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Kevin Hogan scored 11 points and dished out 4 assists, while Zach Pancratz had 10 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists. Matt Robertson and Julian Wilkison each chipped in 9 points for the Tars.
Concordia will next play in the consolation game of the Winter Park Rotary Tangerine Tournament on Tuesday, December 30th against the Wolves of the University of West Georgia. The Wolves fell to Flagler College in the tournaments opening contest 60-59. Tip-off is set for 6:00 PM.
