ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd College men's and women's basketball programs will tackle the respective squads from Sunshine State Conference preseason favorite Rollins College as league action heats up again on Saturday.
The Tritons will travel to Winter Park tomorrow looking to bounce back after facing Florida Southern College on the road earlier this week. The women will tip at 2 p.m. and the men will follow around 4 p.m.
Live stats with video/audio feeds are available on Rollins' athletic website,
www.rollinssports.com.
The Rollins' women (10-1, 2-0 SSC) come into Saturday's game ranked 10th nationally and are riding a 10-game win streak. The Tars' lone loss of the year came in the season opener against then-No. 5 Clayton State (Ga.) University.
Eckerd (7-3, 2-1 SSC) will look to halt their opponent's momentum and keep a recent win streak alive after claiming all three contests against the Tars in the 2010-11 campaign. The Tritons toppled Rollins in the last meeting during first-round action of the SSC Tournament, 70-62.
Senior guard
Kati Rausberg, currently fifth in the SSC in scoring (13.0 ppg), scored 23 points in the last meeting. Rausberg also leads the SSC in three-point field goals per game and as a team, the Tritons are tops in the league in free-throw percentage.
Her backcourt mate, fellow senior
Taylor Young, paces the SSC in steals at 2.6 thefts per contest. Freshman
Emilie Hesseldal is coming off a career-high 20-point outburst against No. 22 Florida Southern on Wednesday.
The Tars' men remain as the lone undefeated team at the top of the SSC standings at 2-0 and carry a 9-3 overall record this year. The Tritons (7-4, 1-2 SSC) will look to move back into the middle of the pack after toppling Nova Southeastern University for their lone SSC victory to date.
The men's rivalry will be restored after Rollins triumphed in three consecutive games last year. The Tritons fell by just one point in Warden Arena in the regular season and came up on the short end in a thrilling 2010-11 SSC Championship bout.
Senior
Lance Kearse leads the Tritons and is ranked second in the SSC in scoring at 18.5 points per game. As a team, Eckerd currently rates third in the conference in scoring per game (79.3) and just like the women, are tops in free-throw percentage.
Sophomore
Alex Bodney helped boost the league-leading charity-stripe rate with a 15-for-16 effort in Wednesday's effort at Florida Southern.
Eckerd Head Coach
Tom Ryan is also closing in on a career milestone in his 16th year on the sidelines. He is just seven games shy of achieving his 300th victory.
