Techs Efforts Not Enough against Rival Tars

MELBOURNE, Fla. (men’s basketball) – In an epic battle between two conference rival teams, the Tars of Rollins College came out on top of the Florida Tech
Panthers 87-74 as the first half of conference play rolls over.

Being the first match–up on the year, the two teams battled it out close through most of the first half. Despite Rollins and Florida Tech being on opposite
sides of the standings, the game itself showed that the standings don’t matter when two conference rivals go against each other.

Janko Mrksic (Stoney Creek, Ontario) got the first bucket of the game as the Tars John Thinnes (Cincinnatie, OH) answered quickly marking their first
points. Over a fifteen minute span, neither team could push more than a three point lead or hold a lead as the game changed leads five times. The lead
swayed to the Tars side off a made bucket from Isaac Codrey (Winter Park, Fla.) which put Rollins up two 29-27 with 5:09 left to play in the half.
That bucket by Codrey helped push the Tars on a 17-10 run to end out the half. Going into the intermission, Tech was down by nine 46-37.

At the half, Tars Codrey led all scorers with 14 points while Tech’s E.J. Murray (Rockledge, Fla.) led the Panthers with 8 points.

Coming out of the break, Tech was fired up and ready to go as the crimson and grey went on a 9-0 run in the first two minutes of the second half to tie the
game at 46. Over the next five minutes much like the first half, the two teams battled it out to gain any control over the other but neither side showed no
signs of breaking. After two three pointers by Rollins Thinnes, the lead was back up to six then gapped to eight. With just over nine minutes to play,
the Panthers huddled up and fought their way back to within four but the Tars were too much as they hit from all over the court and came up clutch from the
line going 9-9 down the stretch to finish the game.

The game ended with a 13 point difference as Rollins was too much to handle for the Panthers; the final scored was 87-74 in favor of the Tars. The win puts
Rollins atop the Sunshine State Conference with an overall record of 15-3 and 6-1 in the SSC while the Panthers move to 5-15 overall and 1-7 in the SSC.

Five Rollins players scored in double digits with John Thinnes leading the way with 21 total points. Isaac totaled 18 while Jonny Reibel (Chicago, Ill.)
fell 2 rebounds and 2 assist shy of a triple double with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

Outstanding shooting came from the Panthers starting point guard E.J. Murray who scored a game high 24 points on 8-17 shooting for .471% and 6-14 from
beyond the arc for .430%. Arthur Richardson (Niceville, Fla.) had a strong night offensively with 11 points shooting .500% on the night; 4-8 from the field
and 3-6 from 3-pt range. Justin Sedlak (Pezinik, Slovakia) performed strongly with 10 points and 4 boards. Jod Kelley (McCormick, S.C.) also performed well
totaling 9 points, 3 boards, and 5 assists. Solid minutes off the bench came from Damien Clark (Orange Park, Fla.) who contributed 7 points, 3 boards, and
an assist in 21 minutes of play. Clark also performed well defensively when his time was called.

Tech has the upcoming weekend off but will travel to the University of Tampa to take on the Buccaneers on Monday, January 29th with an estimated tip-off
time of 7:30 pm.

Newspaper Box Score
Rollins College vs Florida Tech
01/24/07 7:30 pm at Melbourne, Fla. (Clemente Center)
At Melbourne, Fla. (Clemente Center)
ROLLINS COLLEGE 87, FLORIDA TECH 74
ROLLINS COLLEGE (15-3, 6-1)
THINNES, John 8-11 0-0 21; CODREY, Isaac 5-9 8-8 18; REIBEL, Jonny 5-6 5-7
17; HOGAN, Kevin 2-5 5-5 11; REICHEL, Craig 3-8 4-4 10; KOLOSEY, Jordan 2-2
1-4 5; TROUPE, Deon 1-4 2-2 5; SWEENEY, Greg 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-45 25-30
87.
FLORIDA TECH (5-15, 1-7)
MURRAY, EJ 8-17 2-2 24; RICHARDSON, Arthur 4-8 0-0 11; SEDLAK, Justin 4-8
1-1 10; KELLEY, Jod 4-10 0-0 9; CLARK, Damien 2-5 3-4 7; MRKSIC, Janko 2-4
0-0 4; PAROTTE, Edmond 1-1 1-1 3; ZELLER, Sean 1-3 0-0 3; McNALLY, Carl 1-3
0-0 3; WOODSON, Donovan 0-0 0-0 0; HILL, Matt 0-0 0-0 0; BALLARD, Ryan 0-1
0-0 0. Totals 27-60 7-8 74.
Rollins College…………… 46 41 – 87
Florida Tech……………… 37 37 – 74
3-point goals–Rollins College 10-20 (THINNES, John 5-7; HOGAN, Kevin 2-5;
REIBEL, Jonny 2-2; TROUPE, Deon 1-4; REICHEL, Craig 0-1; CODREY, Isaac 0-1),
Florida Tech 13-34 (MURRAY, EJ 6-14; RICHARDSON, Arthur 3-6; McNALLY, Carl
1-3; ZELLER, Sean 1-3; SEDLAK, Justin 1-3; KELLEY, Jod 1-4; BALLARD, Ryan
0-1). Fouled out–Rollins College-None, Florida Tech-MRKSIC, Janko.
Rebounds–Rollins College 30 (REIBEL, Jonny 8), Florida Tech 26 (MRKSIC,
Janko 5; MURRAY, EJ 5). Assists–Rollins College 18 (REIBEL, Jonny 8),
Florida Tech 17 (KELLEY, Jod 5). Total fouls–Rollins College 11, Florida
Tech 21. Technical fouls–Rollins College-None, Florida Tech-RICHARDSON,
Arthur; TEAM. A-769
Coach received Tech.