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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern basketball team (8-4, 1-1 SSC) faces the Saint Leo Lions (9-3, 1-2 SSC) this Saturday, Jan. 8 at the NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center after winning its last five games. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.

This past Wednesday, the Sharks picked up their first Sunshine State Conference win in a 79-68 victory over Florida Tech. The Sharks earned the win with stellar defense, holding the Panthers to a season-best 30 percent shooting from the floor. Alex Gynes (Sr., Nowra, Australia) had 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. He finished a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line and picked up two assists. Lemar Dyer (Sr., Miami, Fla.) became only the third Shark to hold a perfect free throw percentage with 10 or more attempts in a game.

Despite the victory, the Sharks started out great, leading the Panthers by 19 in the first half, but fizzled out as the game progressed. NSU only made two field goals over the last seven minutes of the game and still found a way to hold on for the team’s eighth win.

“Hopefully we’ll be better rested for this game than we were in our win over Florida Tech on Wednesday,” said head coach Gary Tuell. “I wasn’t pleased with the way we were practicing on Tuesday so I brought the guys back Wednesday morning for an 8 a.m. practice. Typically we don’t do much on game days, but I thought we needed to work on things with more intensity than we showed on Tuesday, so we went at it very hard for a couple of hours. The guys responded with a solid first half against Tech, but we were dead-legged in the second half and I’ll take the blame for that.

“Thankfully, we had enough in the tank – and were able to rotate players and keep guys just fresh enough – to hang on for the win. Teddy Tassy (Jr., Boca Raton, Fla.) made two huge threes for us down the stretch against Tech and Lemar Dyer came up with a big steal and made 10 big free throws.”

The Sharks have held their last two opponents to under 35 percent shooting from the floor, a refreshing boost for a defense that allowed opponents to shoot 45 percent before January. The Sharks will need to match this defensive intensity with their elite offensive play in order to win games in the SSC. The Sharks rank 10th in the nation with 87.3 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor.

Next up will be a Saint Leo team that NSU has fared well against since joining the SSC. The Sharks have won eight out of their last 12 games against the Lions including a double-digit win at home last season. However, the Sharks have not swept the Lions in their regular season series in over three years.

“Saint Leo will be an interesting matchup for us because we do a lot of similar things both offensively and defensively, but we are polar opposites in terms of our personnel,” said Tuell. “Saint Leo is quick, athletic and an outstanding rebounding team. We’re one of the least athletic teams in the Sunshine State Conference and quick is not a word any one would use to describe our team. But we play similar styles so this game will probably be determined on the boards, at the foul line and who is shooting the three best.

“Matt Kendrick is developing into the best big man in our league, and at 6-11 he will present some unique problems for us. He’s a very good passer and he shoots the ball well inside and outside so we have to find a way to keep him from having a huge game. In Quentin Cullop they have an experienced and talented point guard who can score from all over the court. But they are anything but a two-man team. They have depth and athletes at every position and a number of guys who shoot the three well. In the past they’ve always been a difficult matchup for us, and I don’t see this season being any different from past years.”

For the second straight game the Sharks will face a team that averages over 40 rebounds per game. The Lions hold opponents to a conference-best 37.1 rebounds per game. They also rank second in the SSC with 4.3 blocks per game. Post players in Gynes, Ross Allsop (Sr., Sydney, Australia) and Robert Huntington (Jr., Perth, Australia) will be crucial towards the outcome of Saturday’s game. The Sharks are 5-1 when they outrebound their opponents but just 3-3 when they do not.

“We’re improving, but there’s a long way to go, both in the conference race and in terms of where we need to be as a team,” said Tuell. “I’ve been pleased with how we start games, but we’ve played some of the most miserable second halves that I’ve seen in 30 some years of coaching. We remind me of a race horse that gets out of the gate well and opens a comfortable lead, then loses interest and starts fiddling around until he has other horses to challenge him. That’s a tough way to win games in our sport, because once the momentum swings to the other team it’s very difficult to get it back.

“We’re doing all we can to impress upon our players that this is a 40-minute game, not a 20-minute game. You can’t beat good teams playing one half of basketball, and Saint Leo is certainly a good team. But we’re a good team, too. If we can learn to focus for the full 40 minutes then we’ll have a chance to eventually be a very good team. We’re doing more of the little things well than we did a few weeks ago, so that’s encouraging. And we have played some of our best basketball in the first half of our last couple of games, so I’m encouraged by that, too. We’ll need to be at our best to win on Saturday.”

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