Box Score MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – The Eckerd men's basketball team had the opportunity to win the Sunshine State Conference regular season championship outright with a victory at Barry but the Buccaneers trumped the Tritons, 82-69, to create a three-way tie at the top between Eckerd, Barry and Rollins.
The contest pitted two teams against each other that have nearly opposite styles of play. Barry (21-5, 12-4 SSC) leads the SSC with 94.1 points per game while Eckerd (22-6, 12-4 SSC) prefers the defensive battle and allows an SSC-best 68.1 points per game. Early on, the pace seemed to be going in Eckerd's favor despite trailing 35-29 at halftime. However, the Bucs shot 62.5 percent from 3-point range in the second half on their way to clinching the top seed in the conference tournament.
The Tritons had control of the game on three occasions, but their final lead came at the 11:55 mark in the first half when
Drushaun McLaurn put back his own rebound to make the score 11-10. A 3-pointer by the SSC's leading scorer, Yunio Barrueta, seconds later provided Barry with what would become the final lead change of the game.
Fighting until the end, the Tritons cut the deficit to one point on two more occasions, but the hot-shooting Bucs and poor free throw shooting haunted EC as the deficit would only get within two possessions three times in the second half. The third instance came late in the game after
Jerrick Stevenson scored four consecutive points with a layup and two free throws to cut the deficit to six, 75-69, with 1:20 on the clock, but that would be that last of Eckerd's scoring. Barry answered with a traditional 3-point play and hit four more free throws to ice the game.
McLaurn led Eckerd off the bench with 16 points and six rebounds. Stevenson followed with 12 points while
Ray Darnell and
Trevon Young added 11 and 10 points respectively. Barrueta led all scorers with 22 points and was joined by four teammates in double figures including Tray Leonard who recorded a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Eckerd, Barry, and Rollins all split the season series with each other forcing an extended tiebreaker. The Buccaneers took the top seed since they defeated Saint Leo, the No. 4 seed, in both of their matchups with the Lions. Eckerd and Rollins both split. Eckerd will be the No. 2 seed since it swept Florida Tech while Rollins split.
The quarterfinal round of the SSC tournament is set to take place on Wednesday, March 2, inside the McArthur Center with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 PM. The Tritons' opponent will be the No. 7 seed as determined after the Florida Southern and Nova Southeastern game tonight. The semifinals and finals will be held at Embry-Riddle on Saturday and Sunday.
