Poor Shooting Costs Tampa Against Barry

Box score

TAMPA, Fla. - The University of Tampa battled back from an early deficit before falling to Barry University by a score of 65-55. The Spartans fall to 12-11 on the season and are now 4-7 in the Sunshine State Conference. The Buccaneers are now 17-4 overall and 9-2 in SSC play.

Barry came out on fire, hitting its first six shots to take a 13-0 lead at 17:12. The lead was stretched to 16 points as Barry led 28-12 with 8:50 remaining in the first half. UT slowly clawed away at the lead, which was cut to single digits on a Johnathan Ball layup at the buzzer to send the game to the half with a 41-33 Barry lead.

The Spartans failed to get any closer than seven points in the second half as the team was 0-15 from three-point range in the half. After shooting 52.6 percent in the first half, UT dropped to 25 percent in the second while Barry was an anemic 27.3 percent.

Chris Evans led Tampa in scoring with 16 points as Jeremy Black recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. All of Black's points were recorded in the first half.

Ball was the team leader with three assists while Matt Pezzullo recorded the team's lone steal. Black and Evans both added two blocks for the Spartans.

One of the few bright spots for the Spartans was the team committing just 12 turnovers as Barry had 17.

Tampa travels to Rollins on Wednesday for a showdown with the league's top team, who Tampa defeated on December 2. The game is scheduled for 7:30 pm in Winter Park.