GAME NOTES
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – After downing Eckerd on the road, 72-56, the Nova Southeastern women’s basketball team (17-10, 8-8 SSC) will now move on to face No. 19 Florida Southern (22-5, 12-4 SSC) in the Sunshine State Tournament semifinals Saturday at 5:00 p.m. The Sharks and Mocs will meet on FSC’s home court, Jenkins Field House, as they are the host of the tournament this season.
In its quarterfinal matchup, NSU jumped out to a 10-point halftime lead on Eckerd and extended it to as many as 22 in the second before capping the game with a final score of 72-56.
Jessica Russi (So., Lake Mary, Fla.) set career-highs in points and rebounds with 21 and 15, respectively.
On Wednesday,
Meixandra Porter (Jr., Chantilly, Va.), who is average a team-best 14.5 ppg, was selected to the All-SSC First-Team, while backcourt mate
Danielle Robinson (Fr., Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) was honored as the SSC Freshman of Year. Both players were also selected to the All-SSC Newcomer Team.
“Our team has come together and played with purpose over the past several weeks,” said head coach LeAnn Freeland. “Their collective determination and poise was evident in our first round game. It is important we continue to build on what we have started and look forward to the opportunity to showcase how far our team has come this weekend in Lakeland.”
The Mocs reached the semifinals with a 79-63 drumming of Tampa Wednesday night. Megan Dzicas connected with five 3-pointers to finish with 17 points, while SSC Player of the Year Michaela Hawley scored a team-high 18 points in the victory.
FSC is led by head coach Jarrod Olson, who was honored as the SSC Coach of the Year for the second straight season. The Mocs finished tied atop the SSC regular season standings with a 12-4 record in conference play, with Rollins and Barry, but held the tiebreaker to earn the top-seed in the SSC Tournament.
Two of those conference losses have come at the hands of the Sharks. NSU first downed the Mocs Jan. 7 in an overtime thriller at the NSU Arena in the Don Taft University Center, 92-87, when FSC was ranked 22nd in the nation. The Sharks defeated FSC for a second time Feb. 4 on the road by a score of 62-58, when the Mocs were ranked 18th nationally.
The Sharks and Mocs last met in the SSC Tournament March 4, 2009, with NSU advancing to the next round with an 82-71 victory at home.
The winner between NSU and FSC will move on to face the winner of the second-seeded Rollins and sixth-seeded Florida Tech matchup, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The finals will be played a 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon and be broadcasted on Bright House Sports Network.
For the latest NSU news and results, be sure to visit
www.NSUSharks.com. To have results sent directly to your cell phone via text message, sign up for SMS text message delivery by
clicking here. For the latest news, be sure to sign up for the Shark Alert E-newsletter by
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