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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (9-12, 4-8 SSC) will return to the Don Taft University Center to face the Tampa Spartans (6-16, 2-10 SSC) Saturday at 4 p.m. The game will broadcast live on 640 Sports.

The Sharks are coming off a tough road loss Wednesday on the road against the Florida Tech Panthers, 64-61. Both teams played well in the contest and the Sharks had two opportunities to send the game into overtime but instead took their fifth straight loss.

“We did enough things right to win the game at Florida Tech on Wednesday,” said head coach Gary Tuell. “We won the battle on the boards, at times dominated them inside and held a potential all-conference player in Derek Hellemann, scoreless. We did a great job on another potential all-conference player, Simon Cummings, keeping him from getting into any kind of rhythm. We held them to 37 percent shooting and 25 percent shooting inside the three point line. Our defensive transition was excellent. But in the end, they had other guys step up and make a lot of three-pointers, and we had a few costly turnovers and missed free throws after building a seven-point lead in the last seven or eight minutes.”

The Sharks ran into a Panther team that was on fire from 3-point range. Florida Tech shot 13-for-26 from downtown. The Sharks struggled from beyond the arc, shooting 8-for-23 in the game.

“I was very pleased with a lot of things we did at Tech, and I thought our guys gave a winning effort,” stated Tuell. “We were disappointed in the loss, but a three-point loss on the road to the second-place team in our league is nothing to hang our heads over. We have to continue to build and improve and move on to the next one.”

Only a handful of games remain on the regular season schedule, beginning with two home games against Tampa and Palm Beach Atlantic. The Sharks are 2-0 against those teams with both games being played on the road. The home stand will give NSU a chance to build momentum heading into the Sunshine State Conference tournament. It will also give seniors Robert Huntington (Perth, Australia) and Teddy Tassy (Port-au-Prince, Haiti) a chance to turn around their final collegiate seasons.

“With five games to play I’m especially hopeful that our two seniors, Rob Huntington and Teddy Tassy, will step up and lead us,” said Tuell. “They’ve been in a lot of games here and they’ve had a lot of success. We need them to be consistent and focused and totally committed to doing everything possible to help us. When they’re playing well, we usually play well as a team. This is the time of the year when you need your senior leaders to take control of your team and lead by example. For their sakes, I want Teddy and Rob to finish strong and be able to look back on their senior seasons with a great deal of pride and satisfaction. They’ve been wonderful student-athletes and examples for the other guys. They deserve good things to happen for them.”

Tampa comes into the game much different than when the Sharks last played them. Back in January, the Sharks defeated the Spartans, 55-52, to bring their SSC record to 0-6. Since that game, the Spartans shocked Rollins on the road, 98-88, and took out Barry at home, 56-55. They are still mathematically in the hunt for a spot in the SSC tournament, just two games behind NSU.

“Tampa is a much-improved team from where they were the first time we played them,” stated Tuell. “We certainly can’t afford to take them lightly or they’ll hurt our feelings. They had a tough loss at Saint Leo Wednesday, but when you look at most of the games they’ve played going back to our three-point win there in early January, they’ve been playing very well. Their win at Rollins should be enough to get anyone’s attention and they have been close a number of times in many other games.

“Our focus right now is not on Tampa or Saint Leo or Lynn or any of the teams left on our schedule. We’re doing a much better job taking care of the ball, but we’ve got to do an even better job if we’re going to move up the ladder in the next two weeks. If we stay focused on improving and giving maximum effort, then we’ll be in the mix at the end. No one has knocked us out this year. We’ve been in a lot of hard-fought battles and we’ve taken some lumps, lost some close decisions. But we’ve had the resolve to dig in and fight on most nights and I haven’t seen any evidence of our players losing that resolve.”

Fans can listen to the game live on 640 Sports or watch the game HERE. Live stats will also be available HERE. Follow the Sharks on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/NSU_MBasketball.

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