Spartans Fall Short to Sailfish

TAMPA, Fla. - The University of Tampa men's basketball team travelled to West Palm Beach to take on the Sailfish of PBA and they came up short in a 72-62 loss. 

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:

Final: Tampa 62, Palm Beach 72 
Records: Tampa (13-6, 6-4 SSC), Palm Beach (8-9, 4-6 SSC)
Location: Greene Sports Center | West Palm Beach, Fla.
All-time Series: Tampa leads the all-time series with Palm Beach 21-3.
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HOW IT HAPPENED:
1st Half | Junior Marcel Robinson hit the boards first on a layup to open up play. PBA quickly retaliated with three back-to-back layups of their own, giving the Sailfish a quick lead. Senior Duke Shelton tallied his first points on a dunk that would end the Sailfish run. Both the Sailfish and the Spartans remained scoreless for nearly three minutes in the first half until PBA scored on a layup followed by a jumper from senior Austin Rettig. The Sailfish offense was dominant as they led by as many as 22 points with five minutes left in the first half. Rettig scored again for the Spartans on a deep three pointer that would decrease the Sailfish advantage to 17 points. Sophomore Freddy Ibrahim recorded his first points late in the first half on a layup. The Sailfish controlled the entire first half and led 38-22 heading into halftime. Rettig and Robinson led all Spartans with seven and six points, respectively.     

2nd Half | The Spartans recharged during halftime as they came out scoring back-to-back, first on a dunk from Shelton then a deep three pointer from Rettig. The Spartans continued to battle as they went on a 20-6 run on the Sailfish. The Spartans took their first lead of the game after a three pointer from Rettig and a layup from Shelton. PBA continued to fight their way back to the lead and they did after a layup making the score, 61-60, Sailfish advantage. The Sailfish went on a late 13-0 run that would solidify their win at 72-62.    

INSIDE THE STATS:

• Rettig led all Spartans with 17 points.
• Shelton was the second leading point scorer with 16.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• Shelton recorded his 10th double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds. 

UP NEXT:

Tampa returns to action on Wednesday, January 25th when they travel to Fort Lauderdale to take on NOVA at 7:30 p.m. Live stats will be available through TampaStats.com.

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