Spartans Rout Tars; Cavallaro Earns Career Milestone
TAMPA, Fla. - An all-around effort by the University of Tampa women's basketball team led the Spartans to their 66-47 victory over the No. 17 Rollins College Tars on Saturday afternoon in the Bob Martinez Athletics Center.
The Spartans improve to 15-9 overall, 8-6 in the Sunshine State Conference. The Tars drop to 19-5 and 10-4 SSC.
Tampa's defense captured 46 rebounds throughout the contest, holding Rollins to 29.0 percent from the floor. The Spartans drained 11 three-pointers, shooting 50 percent in the second half of play.
Juliana Cavallaro reached a milestone in her Spartans' career with 1,000 points as she racked up 10 points and seven rounds in Tampa's win over Rollins. Ellen Nurmi led the squad, posting a team-high 22 points and six assists while collecting seven rebounds. Candace Martino took off in the second half as she recorded six points with eight rebounds - a team-best for the contest. Catherine Matthews registered eight points, shooting 2-for-3 from the three-point mark.
Rollins' Emmalee Schill and Sarah Taylor paced the Tars, scoring 13 and 10 points respectively. Ashley Losch snatched five rounds with nine points.
The Spartans jumped on the board quickly as Nurmi posted two free-throws. The Tars quickly took and expanded their lead to five within four minutes of play. However, this would be their largest margin throughout the contest as Tampa took off to lead by seven, ending the first half at 30-26.
Tampa's prowess continued into the second half when Martino added six points and Nurmi sunk 17 points including four threes. The solid effort by Spartans proved no match for the Tars as the team suffered their third straight loss.
Tampa returns to action on Wednesday as the Spartans take on the Florida Southern Moccasins in Lakeland, Florida at 5:30 p.m. The Spartans defeated the Moccasins 63-52 on Jan. 21.
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.