ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - After sharing the SSC regular season title, the Eckerd men's basketball team will look to add a tournament championship to its resume as the Tritons host Florida Tech in the quarterfinal round at 7:00 PM.
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ABOUT THE PANTHERS: Florida Tech comes into the tournament as the No. 7 seed, winning the tiebreaker over Florida Southern. Their season has been one of ups and downs, but the Panthers have shown the ability to play with the top teams in the SSC as evidenced by their 75-72 road win over Rollins in February. They'll also come into the postseason riding the high of a 94-79 win over Palm Beach Atlantic on Saturday, a victory that FIT head coach Billy Mims felt was the team's biggest of the season according to FloridaTechSports.com. Eckerd will need to pay close attention to Corbin Jackson (14.8 ppg), the SSC's most efficient shooter at 63.4 percent from the floor. Jordan Majors (13.0 ppg), Patrick Anderson (12.1 ppg) and Sam Daniel (12.0 ppg) also provide FIT with additional scoring options.
REGULAR SEASON SERIES: Eckerd swept both regular-season meetings in very different ways. EC won the first meeting in a shoot-out in St. Petersburg on December 2, 104-100 in overtime, and then won a defensive battle on January 30 in Melbourne, 69-56.Â
Kevin Walsh was an important piece in both EC wins as he helped bust a Panther zone with 19 and 18 points respectively and 8-of-14 shooting from 3-point range.
KEY MATCHUP: The Panthers played an extended zone for the majority of the January matchup in Melbourne, and EC head coach
Tom Ryan expects that the Tritons could see another heavy dose of that zone tonight. Eckerd's outside shooting played a big factor in that January win, knocking down 6-of-15 from 3-point range in the first half before holding off a late FIT rally. However, the Tritons shot just 41.8 percent from the floor in the game and will likely need to be more efficient tonight.
PANTHER KILLER: Kevin Walsh proved to be a difficult matchup for Florida Tech during regular season play as the junior guard averaged 18.5 points per game in the two matchups while shooting over 50 percent from 3-point range. Walsh's consistency from behind the arc has been a major factor in EC's success this year. The Arlington Heights, Illinois, native averages 11.5 points per game and shoots 44.0 percent on his 3-point attempts this season.
DO IT WITH DEFENSE: Eckerd's calling card for the majority of the season has been defense. The Tritons lead the SSC and rank 29th in Division II in scoring defense, allowing just 68.6 points per game. EC also ranks 29th in D-II in field goal percentage defense (41.1 percent) and 26th in rebounding margin (plus-6.1).
REGION WATCH: The Tritons were No. 2 in last week's South Region rankings behind Alabama-Huntsville. EC's loss to Barry (No. 4 in the region) could impact its position when the new rankings come out later today. UAH held off an upset bid by Shorter (Ga.) last night in the first round of the Gulf South Conference tournament to further solidify its position as the top team in the region.
