HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—The third-seeded Barry Buccaneers rolled to a 107-92 win over the sixth-seed Rollins Tars in the opening round of the NCAA Division II South Region Men's Basketball Tournament at Spragins Hall on Saturday.
"Well, it was a great opening game for us," Barry head coach Butch Estes said. "I thought, offensively, we were really in sync. We did a great job of sharing the basketball. We had six players in double figures and we're really proud of that. We love to share the ball."
The Bucs (24-6) took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Yunio Barrueta with 18:39 to play in the first half and never looked back. The Bucs used a 10-2 run near the middle of the first half to go up 31-17 and carried a 52-39 advantage into the locker room.
It was more of the same in the second half as the Tars (21-9) never got closer than 12 points. The Bucs pushed the lead out to 22 points on a three-point play by Tray Leonard with 13:02 remaining and match that lead sever more times. Their largest lead, 23 points at 106-83, came on an Arie Williams three-pointer with 1:10 to play.
Barrueta led six Buccaneers in double figures with a game-high 22 points, despite picking up two quick fouls and sitting the final 12:02 of the first half. Undra Mitchem added 18, Anders Haas had 17, Leonard 15 and Elvar Fridricksson 13 as all five starters topped 10 points. Williams came off the bench to add 16 points.
Barrueta needs just nine points to pass Ron Johnson (1984-89) as the school's all-time leading scorer.
Sam Philpott led the Tars with 20 points. Sharif Almulla added 18 and Jeff Merton had 11.
One of the keys to the game was points off turnovers. Despite turning the ball over 15 times to the Tars' 14, the Bucs out-scored Rollins 25-11 on those chances. Barry also held a commanding 335-18 edge on the boards.
"If we can defend and rebound throughout the tournament, I think we have a really good chance," Estes said.
The Bucs will now face the seven seed Union (Tenn.) on Sunday, Mar. 13 at 6:00 pm Eastern Time in the semifinals of the region tournament.
NCAA SOUTH REGION TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
