ATLANTA - It's the Sunshine State Conference Tournament all over again, but with stakes that are now a little higher.
The South Region Championship game will be a rematch of the SSC finals just over a week ago as the Eckerd men's basketball team takes on Barry University for a chance to advance to the Elite Eight. Â The game takes place at Forbes Arena in Atlanta with a 7:00 PM tipoff.
Barry (22-8) won both regular season contests by slim margins of four and two points, but Eckerd (26-6) won a blowout in the conference championship game.
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That's not likely to be the case in the fourth matchup of the season between two teams that know each other all too well.
Here are six things to know heading into the region finals.
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1. Both teams are looking to make their second appearance in the Elite Eight.
Eckerd won the conference tournament title in 2016, but it was the Buccaneers show advanced to the Elite Eight after winning the regional tournament for the first time. Â The Tritons are aiming to get back to the national quarterfinals for the first time since 2003 after defeating Henderson State (Ark.) in the regional finals.
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2. Barry won both regular season meetings this year, including one on a last-second tip-in.
The Bucs knocked down 12 3-pointers and overcame an early 12-point deficit to defeat Eckerd in St. Petersburg, 93-89, on November 18. Barry then won the rematch, 75-73, on January 27 on a buzzer-beating tip-in by Marco Tomic after Eckerd had charged back from a 14-point deficit. Â Barry made 14 3-pointers in the win.
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3. Eckerd used an early 23-0 run to blow out Barry in the SSC Championship.
The Tritons made sure the outcome of the third meeting in Lakeland in the conference championship wasn't in question, scoring 23 unanswered points in the first half on the way to a 96-71 win. Â Eckerd dominated the boards (51-29) and limited Barry to 6-of-26 shooting from behind the arc.
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4. The Bucs share the ball and make a living on 3-point shooting.
Barry has a bevy of outside shooters that put pressure on opposing defenses to rotate quickly and contest their attempts. Â The Bucs rank fifth in Division II in 3-pointers made (369), 39th in 3-point percentage (39.0), and eighth in scoring offense (88.4). Â Elvar Fridriksson, Daniel Mortensen, and Tomic all shoot above 40 percent from behind the arc while Sawyer Glick (101) and Sunday Dech (63) pace the team in 3-pointers made. Â Barry also ranks fourth in the nation with 19.9 assists per game.
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5. Eckerd made it to the Sweet 16 despite cold shooting from the perimeter.
The Tritons are a solid perimeter team as well (37.8 percent from 3-point range) but have advanced to the region finals despite some poor shooting from the outside. Â Eckerd has made just one of its last 17 3-point attempts in the tournament. Â Instead, the Tritons have relied interior scoring and offensive rebounding to compensate. Â EC had 23 second-chance points in its semifinal win over Florida Southern.
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6. A win tonight for Eckerd would tie the program record for the most wins in a season.
The last time that Eckerd advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2007, the team won a program-record 27 games. Â The Tritons can match that number with a win tonight.
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