WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Palm Beach Atlantic men's basketball team concluded regular season play on Saturday against Tampa.

The Sailfish put up a good fight against a regionally-ranked opponent but ultimately fell short down the stretch, 74-67. Fortunately for the Sailfish, due to other results around the SSC, PBA (7-19, 7-13 SSC) clinched the seventh seed in the conference tournament. The Sailfish were originally picked ninth in the SSC preseason poll. This continues PBA's streak of making the SSC tournament since joining the conference in 2016-17.

In today's game, Will Lee led the 'Fish in scoring with 19 points along with five assists, five 3-pointers, and four rebounds.  Marcus Montalvo added 1r4 points off the bench with three rebounds and two assists. Jules Jasmin added 13 points with eight rebounds in likely his last game at Rubin Arena. Jakob Hester finished with eight points, six rebounds, and a block. PBA honored its seniors, Jasmin and Ivan Raut before tip-off.

Both teams took turns trading leads early in the game. Lee got going early, sinking a pair of 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of action. PBA led 15-14 midway through the first period, but the Sailfish advantage never grew larger than five points in the half. The Sailfish went into the locker room with a 30-27 lead.

Tampa (12-8, 16-9) struggled from the 3-point line in the first half, converting on just 1-of-12 attempts. Both teams shot around 31 percent from the field in the period.

The game continued to be tightly contested in the second half. Tampa gained a five-point lead five minutes into the half, but PBA bounced back after a 3-pointer from Alexander Gorton, a pair of buckets by Hester, and a pair of free throws from Nate Ward to take a 45-43 lead with 12 minutes to go.

With eight minutes to go, PBA came back from another five-point deficit after a 3-pointer from Lee and a couple of free throws from Jasmin to tie the game at 55 with six minutes to go. The game got out of hand for the 'Fish after Tampa responded with a 10-1 run capped off by an old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Spartans a 66-56 lead. The Sailfish cut the deficit back down to six with 10 seconds to go, but Tampa held them off to win 74-67.

Although Tampa continued with its woes from 3-point range, the Spartans shot 52 percent from the field in the second half. PBA shot 40 percent in the half and 37 percent for the game.

Tampa won the rebounding battle, 45-38. Each team went to the free-throw line 25 times, but the Spartans made 21 attempts as opposed to 17 made free throws for the Sailfish. Today's game featured 10 lead changes and eight ties.

The Sailfish travel to Embry-Riddle for the Sunshine State Conference tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday.