Tars’ impressive run ends at Elite 8

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — During his 37 years as head coach at Rollins, Tom Klusman has made two trips to the Elite Eight and is still in search of his first win in the national quarterfinals.

Facing top-seeded Fairmont State (33-2), the eighth-seeded and unranked Tars (24-11) fell behind 8-0 early at Sanford Pentagon and couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole during their season-ending 86-68 defeat.

The Fairmont State Falcons, resembling the relentlessness of the West Virginia Mountaineers’ defensive pressure down the road in Morgantown, proved to be too quick with their full-court press setting the tone. They forced six Tars turnovers in the first five minutes. The Tars finished with 18 in the game, three short of their season high.

“I think our team gave it everything they had. I think we ran out of gas,” said Klusman. “The constant pressure and I wasn’t able to sub like we normally do. I didn’t feel like some of our guys could handle the pressure.”

The Tars crept closer when the Falcons found themselves in early foul trouble and pulled to within one by halftime, 42-41.

“No matter the score, no matter what their record looks like, we never really give up,” said Jeff Merton, the Most Outstanding Player in the South Regional at Alabama-Huntsville, who finished with 12 points against Fairmont State.

The Falcons stretched their lead to as many as 25 points in the second half.

To stop the Falcons, the Tars figured they had to contain senior forward Matt Bingaya, a Southern Miss transfer. He averaged 19.4 points a game before the quarterfinals. But Bingaya played only nine minutes in the game because of foul trouble and ended up with only four points.

Guard Jason Jolly picked up the slack. He finished with a career-high 28 points, including three straight back-breaking 3-pointers to give the Falcons a 12-point lead in the opening half.

Seven times this season the Tars overcame doubledigit deficits to win, but not this time.

To reach the Elite Eight this season, Rollins reeled off three victories over the top three seeds in the South Region, each from the Gulf South Conference, at Alabama-Huntsville to cap its 11-game winning streak. On Jan. 11, the Tars were 8-8 and were forced to win the Sunshine State Conference tournament just to qualify for the 64-team field in Division II.

They were forced to work around the seasonending wrist injury to Deion Clark in late November.

“There was an obvious adjustment period when we lost Deion Clark,” said junior forward Sam Philpott, who finished with a team-high 22 points Wednesday. “He was one of our best players by every metric. It took awhile for the guys to step up and some of the roles were reversed.”

But the Tars responded with a strong run down the stretch, with only one loss since Jan. 11 before the Tars’ game against Fairmont State.

“I think as you get older, and look back at things, that’s a time you appreciate and realize that ‘Holy cow! What in the heck did we do?’ ” asked Klusman.

Rollins’ only previous trip to the Elite Eight was in 2004.