BOX SCORE

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – After heading to the locker room up 34-22, the Nova Southeastern University women’s basketball team (10-6, 3-4 SSC) could not sustain the lead as the No. 24 Tampa Spartans (14-3, 6-1 SSC) fought back to defeat the Sharks, 79-64, Saturday afternoon in the NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center.

The Sharks dropped only its second home game of the season.

 

Busting out of the gates to start the game, NSU took a substantial 20-4 lead in the opening minutes. Junior Quinessa Johnson (West Chester, Ohio) drove to the basket for the Sharks first basket.

 

Seniors Stephanie Sarosi (Mims, Fla.) and Abbie Tepe (Cincinnati, Ohio) would hit back-to-back three’s as the Sharks lead extended to double-digits, 13-2.

 

As freshman Jasmine Wilkins (Miami, Fla.) hit a layup to continue the Sharks dominance, Tampa’s head coach Tom Jessee was forced to call a timeout to break NSU’s momentum.

 

Not fazed by the timeout, junior Jada Buckner (Loudon, Tenn.) hit the Sharks’ third three at the 14:43 mark as Nova Southeastern scored its 18th point to Tampa’s two.

 

NSU outshot Tampa in the first half, hitting 43.8 percent (14-for-32) to the Spartans (7-for-27) from the field.

 

Unfortunately the game flipped 180 degrees in favor of Spartans in the second half.

 

UT started the second half just as the Sharks started the game and eventually trimmed NSU’s lead to one at the 15:10 mark.

 

The contributing factor to Tampa’s win was the fact that they scored 13 treys in the second half.

 

Tampa’s Lindsey Watson was the game’s leading scorer with 28, 18 coming from behind the arc. The SSC’s leading scorer Taja Green tacked on 18 points for Tampa.

 

Tampa outscored the Sharks, 57 to 30, in the second half as Nova Southeastern suffered its third straight loss in conference play.

 

Sarosi and Tepe were both the Sharks leading scorer with 17 a piece.

 

NSU will return to the road as they face the SSC top-seeded team, Florida Southern in Lakeland, Fla. on Wednesday, Jan. 26 at 5:30 p.m.