Box Score
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (11-8, 4-5 SSC) dropped its third straight close game Saturday in the NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center by losing to the Rollins Tars (16-4, 8-1 SSC), 62-61.
Lemar Dyer (Sr., Miami, Fla.) set a career-high of 11 assists and was one steal away from a career-high with four. He also grabbed six rebounds and extended his free throws made streak to 44.
Alex Gynes (Sr., Nowra, Australia) led the Sharks in both scoring, with 15 points along with seven boards. Gynes shot 5-for-13 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line.
Ross Allsop (Sr., Sydney Australia) pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and scored six points on 3-for-6 shooting.
The two halves were polar opposites as the Sharks dominated the second half but could not overcome a poor first half. They scored a season-low 20 first half points on 8-for-33 shooting, setting a season-low 24.2 field goal percentage (8-for-33). The Tars were up by as much as 17 points with five minutes left in the half, but the Sharks went on a 6-1 run to end the half.
John Brooks (Sr., Perris, Calif.) kept the Sharks afloat by scoring 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting. Brooks finished the game with 13 points and two assists.
The Sharks came out of the second half reenergized and cut the Tars’ lead in half just three minutes into the period.
Teddy Tassy (Jr., Boca Raton, Fla.), who scored 13 points on the day, caught fire early in the half and knocked down three shots from beyond the arc in the first nine minutes.
With 7:42 left on the clock,
Robert Huntington (Jr., Perth, Australia) made a jumper in the paint that tied the game at 47 apiece. A minute and a half later Huntington drained a layup that put the Sharks up by five, NSU’s largest lead of the game. The Sharks would hold onto their lead until the 2:36 mark when Rollins’ Nick Wolf put his team up by two with a mid-range jumper.
From then on out each team would only have one scoring possession. NSU’s came with a minute and half to go when Brooks knocked down a three-pointer, giving his team a one-point lead. The Sharks had a chance to seal the game with 33 seconds left but the Tars’ lockdown defense forced an off-balance three from Brooks that was rebounded by Rollins’ Matt Robertson.
After a timeout with 13 seconds left, Wolf received an inbounds pass and was fouled by Dyer as he drove to the hoop. After missing two earlier, the SSC’s second leading scorer knocked down both free throw attempts to give his team a 62-61 lead. With nine seconds remaining, Tassy took the game’s deciding shot but missed right before the final buzzer.
Both teams struggled shooting Saturday as Rollins shot 39 percent (21-for-53) while NSU shot 36 percent (22-for-62), despite shooting 14-for-29 in the second half.
Despite his team’s struggles shooting, Huntington had very efficient outing by scoring 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting. He also collected three rebounds and two assists.
The Sharks will hit the road next Saturday, Feb. 5 to take on Saint Leo at 4 p.m.
