Rollins Eliminates Tritons From SSC Tournament in Semifinals

Box Score DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The season of the Eckerd men's basketball team is likely to continue, but its hopes of repeating as the Sunshine State Conference tournament champions will not.

The Tritons (21-8) were upended by a strong second-half performance from Rollins as the Tars advanced to Sunday's title game with an 81-70 win over Eckerd in the SSC semifinals at Embry-Riddle's ICI Center.

Eckerd led by 12 points with 5:45 left in the first half, but had issues from that point forward against the Tars' zone.

Rollins went on an 11-3 run to close the half and pull within two points (39-37) at halftime.  The Tritons managed to maintain their lead for the first nine minutes of the second half, but the Tars rolled off 12 unanswered points to take a 65-57 lead with 8:16 to play.

After a Keshawn Ingram 3-pointer broke the run, Jeff Merton took over for the next several minutes.  The Rollins junior scored seven straight points as the Tars stretched their lead to 10, and Eckerd was never able to recover.

Eckerd started the game strong behind the shooting of Matt Beneduci, who knocked down four straight 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to give EC a 22-13 lead near the midway mark of the first half.

Later in the half, Kevin Walsh drained back-to-back 3's, pushing the Triton lead to 32-20 before Rollins stormed back.

Beneduci had another impressive outing against Rollins, scoring 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting from 3-point range.  Trevon Young added 15 while Drushaun McLaurn had 14.  Merton led all scorers with 23 points, 17 of which came in the second half.

Eckerd swept Rollins (20-10) in the regular season, including a 22-point win at home on February 4.  That was also the last time the Tars lost, extending their winning streak to seven after tonight's contest.

Rollins will face Palm Beach Atlantic, which upset top-seeded Barry, for the SSC Championship tomorrow at 4:00 PM.  

The Tritons, meanwhile, will wait to learn their postseason fate in the NCAA Division II Selection Show on Sunday night.  A bid to the national tournament remains a strong possibility for Eckerd, which is currently ranked fifth in the region.