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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (11-7, 4-5 SSC) will end a three-game homestand Wednesday, as the Sharks take on the Eckerd Tritons (12-5, 5-4 SSC) at the NSU Arena in the Don Taft University Center at 7:30 p.m. The game will broadcast live on 640 Sports.
The Sharks will be looking to end a recent skid that has had NSU drop two games at home against Barry, 68-61, and Saint Leo, 68-65. The Sharks led in the second half of both games before allowing the road team to steal the win.
“After winning eight of ten, we’re obviously not playing well at the moment,” said head coach
Gary Tuell. “Losing the last two games at home to Barry and Saint Leo is disappointing in a number of ways. First, we didn’t execute well or play nearly as hard as we’re capable in either of those games. Second, we had the lead in the second half of both games and let the other team take the game from us in the final five minutes. That should never happen, especially on your home floor. We certainly miss
Justin Jeangerard (So., Weaverville, Calif.), but Saint Leo was without Marcus Ruh on Saturday and their guys found a way to overcome his absence. You have to applaud Saint Leo’s guys for their ‘refuse to lose’ attitude down the stretch, but at the same time we were very, very disappointed with the way our guys responded to the challenge.”
In both losses, the Sharks did enough defensively over the course of the game, holding each opponent to 68 points, and shot the ball well. NSU shot over 40 percent from 3-point range in both contests. However, NSU has struggled offensively in many other aspects, losing the turnover and offensive rebound battles. The result has been more possessions for the opposition, and subsequently, more points despite a lower shooting mark.
“Somewhere in the last week or two we’ve lost our mojo,” said Tuell. “We’re going to do some things differently in the way we practice and prepare over the next month and hopefully we can regain our toughness and our passion to compete. We’ll have some morning workouts geared toward mental and physical conditioning and try to shorten our afternoon practices while increasing the level of intensity. I don’t want our guys to approach the morning workouts as punishment for losing, but they have to understand that losing the way we did against Barry and Saint Leo is not acceptable. There’s no shame in getting beat, but you want guys who are fighting their hardest for 40 minutes. If guys are giving their best effort, you can live with the outcome regardless of what it is. Hopefully our guys will see the value in what we’re trying to do and that will get us back on the right track.”
No time is better than now to right the ship, and the opponent traveling to NSU is one they have already beaten. In January, the Sharks defeated Eckerd, 79-74, on the road in one of their best performances of the season. It ended a long road losing streak against the Tritons.
“Eckerd is always a joy to play,” stated Tuell. “Tom Ryan is as good a coach and person as you will find in our profession. His teams play with heart and passion and they either bring out your best or they hammer you. I love our two games with Eckerd because I know we’re going to be challenged and the response our team gives tells a lot about the character of the team. Eckerd is consistently good at both ends of the floor. In Darrien Mack, Woody Taylor and Alex Bodney they have three of the most experienced and talented players in our league. Those guys are a class act and no one will compete harder, night in and night out, than they do. We’ll have to be a whole lot better than we’ve been the past two games if we want to compete with them.”
NSU is currently seated in fifth place in the Sunshine State Conference. Eckerd is in fourth place, with a game over NSU and a two-game gap before third place. With the entire postseason being played a neutral location, the difference between the fourth and fifth seeds is nearly irrelevant. However, each team will enter Wednesday’s game looking for a possible advantage come March.
Fans can listen to the game live on 640 Sports. The game will also be available via live video
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