Tampa Drops Close Game against West Florida

TAMPA, Fla. - The University of Tampa men's basketball team dropped their second game of the season on Saturday, falling to the University of West Florida by a score of 61-58. Tampa falls to 6-2 on the season while West Florida improves to 5-3.

The Spartans started off slow in the first half, falling behind early 16-7 with just over seven minutes gone by. Finding themselves down by 14 with about eight minutes to go in the period, Tampa mounted a comeback, outscoring their opponents 16-6 to finish the first down by only four points, 32-28.

The Spartans came out of halftime determined to snatch the win from the Argonauts, never trailing in the second half by more than five points. Chris King gave Tampa their first lead of the half with only 7:23 to play, hitting a jumper to put the Spartans up 46-45. Chris Evans hit a potential game-changing 3-pointer with less than six minutes remaining to extend the lead to 51-47.

West Florida got a shot of life from Marcus Grant less than thirty seconds later to cut the Spartan lead to one. Tampa lost the lead for good with 43 seconds left on the clock when Barry Durosier drilled a 3-pointer for the Argos, giving West Florida a two point lead. The Spartans battled to the end, setting themselves up for a desperation 3-point try with five seconds left and trailing by 3. It was not to be, as they turned the ball over as time expired, having never attempted the shot.

Chris Evans led the way for the Spartans with 17 points in the loss, getting strong contributions from Jeremy Black and Chris King, with 11 and 8 points respectively. Scott Mascio had a season-high eight rebounds to lead the way on the glass for Tampa.