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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (10-5, 3-3 SSC) will travel up the Florida Turnpike Saturday to take on the Lynn Fighting Knights (10-6, 2-4 SSC) at 4 p.m. in Boca Raton, Fla. The game will broadcast live on 640 Sports in the Plantation Ford/Weston Nissan Volvo Game of the Week.
The Sharks are fresh off their second straight win this past Wednesday against Florida Tech, 78-72. The Sharks blitzed Florida Tech all night and shot 27-for-55 with 12 3-pointers against the defending league regular season champions. The Sharks are now in fifth place in the Sunshine State Conference, one game above Lynn, who’ll be looking to catch up with NSU on its home floor.
“Since we moved into our new on-campus arena for the 2006-07 season, our series with Lynn has been like something out of the Bizarro World,” said head coach
Gary Tuell. “Everything has been backwards, sort of like trying to diagonal park in a parallel universe. Not only have the results been backwards, but the ending to our games have been – at times – totally bizarre. Over the last six seasons, Lynn has beaten us five times at our place and we’ve beaten them five times at their place. The only season we won at home, 2008-09, we actually beat them here twice because we met them on our court in the first round of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament.
“Since moving into the NSU Arena on our campus, they’ve gone 5-2 against us here and we’ve gone 5-1 against them at their place. That’s completely unexplainable. About the only thing that’s been consistent is that we have had a whole lot of nail-biting, down-to-the-wire finishes and some of those have ended in the most improbable fashion. Our series with Lynn has been straight out of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.”
The last meeting against NSU and Lynn was the most bizarre of them all, and possibly the oddest ending to any NCAA basketball game that season. The Sharks led by two with six seconds left and went to the line for a 1-and-1 free throw, giving the Sharks a chance to ice the game. The Sharks could not convert on the first attempt, allowing Lynn to grab the rebound, run up the court and draw a foul on a 3-point attempt with six-tenths of a second left.
Lynn’s Josh Garcia made two free throws to tie the game, and was set to take one more game-winning free throw. However, Garcia was called for a technical foul and Teddy Tassy was sent to the line to put the Sharks back up by two. Tassy converted twice to win the game and shock the Lynn crowd.
“The one thing that is consistently true about Lynn is that they are always extremely well-coached,” stated Tuell. “Scott McMillin is a good friend and a great coach who always has his teams prepared. Year in and year out they are one of the best defensive teams in our league. They play with a lot of passion and toughness and defend you with tremendous pressure. Offensively, this year’s Lynn team is a nightmare to guard because he has seven players averaging about 10 points a game. You don’t know where to focus your defensive attention because they are tremendous in transition, have outstanding three-point shooters and a solid low post game.
“Their guards are lightning quick and with their speed they are very good at getting to the rim off the dribble. Their bigs are athletic and skilled. In some ways they are very similar to the Barry team we’ll see on Wednesday, so we will get two games back-to-back against teams that do a lot of the same things and play similar styles. I don’t know if that will help us Saturday at Lynn, but it should be easier in terms of preparation for Barry next week.”
Lynn plays a similar style to the Florida Southern squad that has already won at NSU. Lynn will get out and run with NSU, eliminating the chance for NSU’s run-and-gun style to exploit them. Three out of Lynn’s four losses have come from the league’s top-three teams in Rollins, Florida Southern and Saint Leo.
“The good news for us, win or lose on Saturday, is that we have seven of our next eight games at home,” said Tuell. “We have a chance to come home from Lynn and get comfortable, find a rhythm and if we’re lucky and good enough, maybe get on a little roll before the end of the season. Of course, nothing is guaranteed. We get everybody’s best shot at home because visiting teams get excited about playing in our arena. When it’s set up properly and our students come out to support us, it’s the best basketball environment in our league. It’s so much nicer than most places we play that the other teams get amped up to play here. Maybe that’s why Lynn has played so well here over the years, but it doesn’t explain the success we’ve had at their place.”
At 3-3 in the league, the table is set for NSU to make a move up the standings. The Sharks have a chance to reach 5-3 at the midpoint of conference play, and will only have to travel to Florida Southern, Florida Tech and Barry down the stretch. If the Sharks can string two wins together over the next five days, NSU will be in position to make a run at the SSC title.
Above all, the Sharks are improving at a rapid pace.
Brian Cahill (So., Arlington, Va.), fresh off a two-year hiatus from basketball due to injury, has led the Sharks in scoring in three of the last four games. Over that same stretch, newcomer
Maurice Fuller (So., Westfield, Ind.) has shot a blistering 52 percent from 3-point range and
Stian Berg (So., Baerum, Norway) has shot 90 percent on 19 free throw attempts. All the while, senior forwards
Iran Hollis (Hollywood, Fla.) and
Lukas Roesch (Sugar Grove, Ohio) continue to fluster defenses with a unique front court style of play.
“We haven’t come close to playing our best yet,” said Tuell. “It was nice to go on the road and win at Tampa, especially after they were coming off a big win over Saint Leo. And it was good to get a win against those big guys from Florida Tech on Wednesday. I never dreamed we’d be 10-5 or 3-3 in the league at this point, and credit our guys for over-achieving and playing well together. We really share the ball and that was evident in our win against Tech. But the deeper we go with this team, the more we see some untapped potential and an opportunity to improve.
“We still don’t have a firm grasp of our offense and how to take advantage of all the things available, but our guys are working at it and they’re gaining on it little by little, piece by piece. Fortunately we have had enough guys knock down shots and make plays, and more than anything else, we’ve been totally unselfish. There’s still a long way to go and a lot of room for improvement.”
Fans can listen to the game live on 640 Sports. The game will also be available via live stats
HERE. Follow the Sharks on Twitter at
www.Twitter.com/NSUSharks.
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