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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 2, 2002
MELBOURNE -- Top-seeded Tampa overpowered No. 8 seed Florida Tech 75-61 and No. 2 Eckerd defeated No. 7 Saint Leo 84-76 Friday in the opening round of the men's conference tournament.
The Spartans (24-2) face No. 4 seed Rollins (18-9) at 3 p.m. today in one semifinal. Eckerd (21-6) takes on No. 3 Florida Southern (19-8) at 12:30.
Jon Brown, the SSC player of the year, led Tampa with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Earnest Williams and Leonard Kelly had 12 points each and first-team all-conference Sylvere Bryan added 9 points and 11 rebounds.
Eckerd got 27 points from Dwayne Smith and 17 points and 9 rebounds from Cerwin Thompson to hold off Saint Leo (8-19). Sharrod McCree added 16 points. Saint Leo was led by John Stolard with 26 points. Frank Craig added 17.
Rollins advanced with a 65-51 victory over Barry, and Florida Southern nipped Lynn 63-62.
Eckerd and Tampa advanced to the semifinals of the women's tournament and will face Florida Tech and Rollins respectively today at Melbourne.
Felecia Felton had 22 points and 14 rebounds to lead Eckerd (14-13) to a 58-52 opening-round victory over Lynn (15-12). Andrea Patterson added 15 points for the Tritons. Michele Newman led Lynn with 14 points.
April Hinton fueled Tampa (16-11) with 16 points and 7 rebounds in its 74-64 win over Barry, which closed the gap in the second half after trailing 34-16 at halftime. Nichole added 12 points for the Spartans.
Florida Tech (21-5) routed Saint Leo 94-68 and Rollins (22-5) defeated Florida Southern 63-57 in other opening-round games.
Saint Leo, which got a game-high 20 points and 11 rebounds from Ebony Winn, finished with an 8-19 record.
The Tampa-Rollins game is at 5:30 p.m. and the Eckerd-Florida Tech contest at 8.