Tampa Basketball Set to Host Barry on Senior Day
TAMPA, Fla. - The University of Tampa men's and women's basketball teams are set to finish the regular season on Saturday against Sunshine State Conference opponent Barry University. Both teams will honor their seniors prior to each game. The women are scheduled to tip at 2 p.m., followed by a 4 p.m., men's game.
Tampa's women enter with a 15-10 overall record, and 8-7 SSC record. The Spartans have lost three of their last four games, though they handed the Bucs a 61-49 loss in the season's first meeting in Miami Shores.
Junior Juliana Cavallaro leads all Spartans with 16.0 points per game. She also has a team-high 34 steals and 54 3-point field goals. Aisha Rodney and Ellen Nurmi also average double figures at 12.4 and 10.3 respectively.
UT's women have three seniors, including Rodney, Catherine Matthews and four-year letterwinner Jenny Taptich. The three will be honored prior to the tip of the first game.
The Spartan men are 17-9 on the season, and 9-6 in league play. This is the second of two top-10 opponents this week as UT fell by an 87-79 score to No. 1 Florida Southern on Wednesday in Lakeland. Tampa has won six of its last seven games.
Barry is the nation's No. 9 team, entering with a 22-3 overall record and 13-2 SSC tally. The Buccaneers need a victory over UT coupled with a Florida Southern loss to earn a share of the SSC regular season championship. Tampa gave the Bucs a fierce battle in the first meeting, eventually falling 99-93 in Miami Shores.
The trio of Jordan Davis (15.0 ppg), Austin Rettig (15.0 ppg) and Eugene McCrory (16.9 ppg) has led Tampa, as McCrory also averages a team-high 9.2 rebounds per contest.
UT will honor its seven seniors prior to the game, including Davis, McCrory, Flynn Bluett, Derric Braziel, Jason Brown, Tiant Zion-McCoy and Kyle Middleton.
Fans may watch the game through TampaSpartans.tv, and follow live stats through Tampa.Statbroadcast.com.
Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans), YouTube (youtube.com/utathletics) and Instragram (tampaspartans). UT also offers blast, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.