Box Score
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (0-3) went down to the wire with No. 3 West Liberty (2-0) but fell, 100-86, Friday on Homecoming Night.
The Sharks played in front of a crowd of 1,286 fans, the largest crowd for a NSU basketball game in history. In the game, NSU had five scorers in double figures, led by
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.) with 19 points on 6-for-7 shooting. The sophomore came off the bench to knock down three treys and bring in five rebounds.
Justin Jeangerard (Jr., Weaverville, Calif.) collected a team-best eight rebounds to go with 12 points and three assists.
"It was a great college basketball game," said head coach Gary Tuell. "After seeing West Liberty up close and personal I understand now the reasons for their success and high national ranking over the past five years."
The Sharks had planned for the high-powered offence of West Liberty, a team that had only lost nine games in the last four seasons. However, it was the Hilltopper defense that stymied the home team early. West Liberty showed a full court press from the start and caused several early turnovers to create a 19-10 lead in under six minutes. NSU committed a quarter of its 20 turnovers during that span.
"They are such a unique team in their style of play," stated Tuell. "Their press is relentless. In 35 years of coaching I have had some good pressing teams and I've seen some good pressing teams. But their press is on a completely different level than any I have seen. The mindset and work ethic of their players is unique and admirable. You really can't imagine how good that press is. You have to see it up close to understand and appreciate the system and the tough minded kids who make it work.
"Having said all that, I couldn't be any more proud of our guys if they had won this game. We took all the big punches they threw and refused to fall. Our guys kept coming back and gave a wonderful effort of their own."
NSU would begin to piece the puzzle together and ran with the notoriously fast Hilltoppers. NSU broke out on an 11-2 run to tie the game at 21 with eight minutes left in the first half. A barrage of 3-pointers kept West Liberty ahead, but the Sharks stayed in the game throughout the period, entering halftime down, 43-38.
Brian Cahill (Jr., Arlington, Va.) scored nine of his 11 points in the first half on 4-for-7 shooting. NSU made up for its early turnover issues by shooting at a 48 percent clip before halftime.
West Liberty sank five of their first six shots to open the second half, creating a double-digit lead within two minutes. They would build their largest lead of the game with nine minutes left at 76-57. The Sharks did not throw in the towel, as the home squad continued to play hard from end-to-end. NSU outscored the opposition from then on, and cut the deficit to single digits, 89-80, with four minutes left. However, two straight turnovers crushed the momentum, allowing West Liberty to cruise to victory.
"We had a couple of short stretches in the second half where we broke down defensively and that allowed them to stretch their five point halftime lead to double digits," said Tuell. "The elite teams don't have those defensive lapses. The best teams we've played the last few years like West Liberty and Bellarmine and maybe Florida Southern from our own league, those teams are at the elite level because they know how to play hard for the full 40 minutes and avoid the kind of defensive lulls that we experienced in the second half tonight. That's what separates them from the really, really good teams. If we want to be an elite team we have to develop that same work ethic and mindset that drives you to grind it out for the full 40 minutes.
"But even with our youthful shortcomings our guys kept coming back and competing. We had it down to single digits and had a chance to do something really special until those two costly turnovers inside the last three or four minutes."
Casey Carroll (So., Youngstown, Ohio) got off to a cold start but finished strong with 14 points, five rebounds and two blocks.
Mike Terry (Ironton, Ohio) came off the bench to drop in 11 points and four rebounds. Cahill and
Maurice Fuller (Jr., Westfield, Ind.) led the team in assists with five apiece.
"I am so proud of how far this team has come in the last seven days," said Tuell. "If we had played with this kind of effort on the opening weekend we would be 2-1 right now. Give a lot of credit to our crowd tonight, our student body, our alumni, our former players, our faculty and staff and administators who came out to support us. Give President Hanbury credit for coming to the locker room before the game to encourage our team. Give Kim Carbo and Jen Bucknell from our marketing department, as well as our AD Mike Mominey and all of our coaches and student-athletes from the other sports a lot of credit for the way they promoted the game and helped to create a great atmosphere for both teams. It was special and certainly helped energize our players.
"Our guys really came together this week. It remains to be seen if this effort was a one-time thing or if it's who we are. Every nonconference game on our schedule is going to be a huge challenge. Our guys understand that. We' re playing this schedule for a reason. It's the best way I know to teach young players what this thing is all about, the best way I know to prepare them and teach them the importance of competing and giving their best effort night in and night out. Young players will never learn how to compete playing a bunch of bad teams. The team, and especially the youngsters, need these challenges. Our older players embrace each and every one of these games as opportunities to measure themselves against the best.
"Too many people are hung up on wins and losses. We're trying to teach lessons and develop a culture and a mindset and work ethic that goes far beyond winning and losing. But let's be honest. Unless you learn how to play with the elite teams and learn what it takes to beat those teams, you really don't accomplish anything of value just by playing meaningless games against meaningless opponents. Even in defeat we became a much better team tonight than we would have if we beat some bottom feeder team. These kind of games give you a chance to grow. At the end of the season our team will be defined by how good we can become in our league, not necessarily by our won loss record. Playing West Liberty and Benedict and Belmont Abbey and Drury, Amherst and Florida International gives us an opportunity to learn how to compete at the highest level. We love to win as much as anyone. But our focus right now is on growth, improvement, developing toughness and learning to play hard for 40 minutes. When you learn those lessons in games like this one tonight, then you give yourself a chance when it counts later in the year. After playing our nonconference schedule there won't be anyone on our schedule who intimidates us and that's important to a young team looking to be at its best in February and March."
The Sharks will return to the road on Monday, Nov. 18 to face Benedict at 7:30 p.m. in Columbia, S.C.
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