Sunshine State Conference tournament play continued Saturday with the University of Tampa Spartans topping the St. Leo Lions in the semifinal by a score of 75-55. The second-seeded Spartans easily stepped by the Lions on the way to the SSC title game against Florida Southern.
“A lot of people don’t realize how good this league is. People never do,” Coach Richard Schmidt said. “The top two in the country can play with the mid-leaguers.”
Tampa recovered from the quarterfinal overtime win against Rollins and attacked St. Leo at a fast pace. Both teams had trouble finding holes in the opponent’s defense. The Spartans were 42.9 percent from three-point range. Turnovers kept the game within three in the opening ten minutes.
Jeremy Black picked up his second foul 13 minutes into the first half. He spent the remaining time on the bench. Chris King cut through the Lions to put up two and a free throw to tie the game at 31 with five and a half minutes left in the first.
“I feed off of them. When I’m showing emotion, they know we’re doing a good job,” said Black. “We were just having fun.”
Chris Evans had a well-rounded half collecting four rebounds and six blocks. He added a team high nine points but missed both foul shots. Evans also set a school-record with 10 blocks, breaking his own previous record of nine. He hadn’t topped 5 blocks all season.
“I think I had more than five [blocks], I just think at home they record them,” said Evans. “I’ve been blocking them, you just couldn’t tell.”
Rashad Callaway and Johnathan Ball each collected steals with under two minutes to turn the momentum back with the Spartans tying the game at 33. Evans sunk a three to give Tampa a 36-35 edge going into the half.
The second half was Tampa domination. Evans started a 15-5 run. Ball added three free ones to the streak. The Spartan defense held the Lions to nine points in 11 minutes. A steal from Black set up a spin dunk from Ball to put Tampa up by 21 with seven minutes remaining on the clock.
“We started executing and taking better shots,” Schmidt said. “We started playing defense, putting pressure on them. Penetrating. That’s what we weren’t doing in the first half.”
At four minutes before the closing of the semifinals, Tampa sent their starters to the bench and let the second string carry the team to a 75-55 win. Tampa now faces long-time rival Florida Southern for the conference championship. Tip off is 1 p.m. in Martinez Gym on Sunday, March 9.
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