Box Score
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (2-7) began the 2013 Cruzin Classic Tuesday with a tough loss against No. 13 Livingstone, 82-65, at the NSU Arena.
Justin Jeangerard (So., Weaverville, Calif.) and
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.) each scored a team-high 14 points. Jeangerard had a game-high seven rebounds with two assists, while Page had a team-best three assists with six boards. They each had two steals in the contest.
Brandon Patchan (Fr., Tampa, Fla.) earned his first career start and tallied a career-best seven boards with five points.
The game was closer than the score indicated, as NSU stayed with the undefeated Blue Bears for most of the game. However, Livingstone led the entire first half and jumped out to an early 9-2 lead. Mark Thomas scored his team's first 11 points and finished the game with 23. NSU stayed at an arm's length and never let Livingstone build a double digit first-half lead. They would battle back to a one-point deficit two minutes before the break and enter halftime down, 32-28.
NSU's defense kept them in the game early, holding Livingstone to 9-for-27 shooting in the first half. Each team had 10 turnovers before the break.
Casey Carroll (So., Youngstown, Ohio) came off the bench to score seven first-half points. He would finish the night with 11 points, four rebounds and two steals.
After trailing the entire game, NSU tied it up at 36 with 15:53 remaining on a Page fastbreak layup. Livingstone retaliated with a 3-pointer, but NSU took their first lead shortly after. Jeangerard hit a second-chance 3-pointer with 10:03 remaining to put NSU up 50-49. The Sharks held their largest lead two minutes later at 55-51 on another second-chance bucket from Jeangerard.
Livingstone took a timeout and returned with a pair of treys to reestablish their lead. The game slowed down to a snail's pace from there, as the Blue Bears earned several trips to the foul line. Livingstone pulled away on a 10-2 run, scoring eight points at the foul line over a four-minute span. The Sharks cut the deficit down to as much as seven points, but could not stop a Blue Bears squad that shot 6-for-7 from the floor over the final four minutes.
After shooting 5-for-16 from 3-point range in the first half, Livingstone went 6-for-9 the rest of the way. The Blue Bears also pulled down 20 offensive rebounds on 42 opportunities, an opponent-best against NSU this season.
Cameron Denney (Fr., Norwell, Ind.) hit career-highs with nine points and five rebounds.
Stian Berg (Jr., Baerum, Norway) and
Maurice Fuller (Jr., Westfield, Ind.) scored seven and five points, respectively.
NSU will close out 2013 against the defending NCAA National Champions, No. 3 Drury, Thursday at 6 p.m. in the NSU Arena.
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