Spartans Duke It Out; Defeat Tritons

Box score

TAMPA, Fla. - Coming down to the final minutes of play, the University of Tampa men's basketball team narrowly defeated Eckerd College, 56-53, on Wednesday night in the Bob Martinez Athletics Center. The Spartans improve to 14-8, 7-5 in the Sunshine State Conference, while Tritons drop to 11-11, 4-8 SSC.

A defensive battle put Spartan's in bonus with 14 minutes remaining in the game. Eugene McCrory's free throws tied up the contest at 49-all with three minutes to go. Tampa solidified their victory as Othniel Shelton added two more points on the board with an alley-oop dunk from by Jordan Davis, forcing an Eckerd timeout with 1:31 remaining as the Spartans led 54-49.

Austin Rettig led the Spartans, scoring 16 points and seven rebounds. McCrory posted a double-double with 12 points and rebounds apiece. Matt Johnson and Davis added eight points to the Spartans' 56 throughout the contest.

The Tritons' Trevon Young posted 17 points with six rebounds, the team's best for the night.

The Spartans maintained the lead from the start, with the earliest margin of five points and the largest lead of 11 at the 9:45 mark. Davis posted two-three pointers in the first half to bring Tampa to 26-24 halftime lead.

The back-and-forth contest continued throughout the second half, making it a hard-fought win yet the Spartans claimed the 56-53 win.

The Spartans return to action on Saturday as they take on Palm Beach Atlantic at 4 p.m. in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Spartans defeated the Sailfish on Jan. 17, 63-55. Live stats and a broadcast will be available through TampaSpartans.tv.

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