Box Score BOX SCORE
LAKELAND, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s basketball team (11-9, 4-7 SSC) were topped by a top-10 nationally ranked team on the road Saturday, as the Sharks were defeated by the No. 8 Florida Southern Mocs, 81-70.
Lukas Roesch (Sr., Sugar Grove, Ohio) led the Sharks on the day, scoring 19 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
Iran Hollis (Sr., Hollywood, Fla.) followed with 17 points and tied
Brian Cahill (So., Arlington, Va.) for a team-best six rebounds. Cahill finished the day with 10 points and game-high six assists.
“I think this team’s (Florida Southern) won so easily in the league, they’ve been on such a roll,” said head coach Gary Tuell. “I was proud of our guys, we got better when we played against Eckerd and we played a lot better today than we played against Eckerd. So we are headed in the right direction.”
The Sharks opened up the game with a 3-point play from Hollis to seal their largest lead of the day. The Sharks played the highly-touted Mocs close in the beginning and led, 21-20, with 9:29 left in the first half. After a
Justin Jeangerard (So., Weaverville, Calif.) 3-pointer, Florida Southern went on a 14-4 run to build a lead that would last until the end of the game. The Sharks battled back and trailed, 40-36, at the break.
In the second half, the Mocs dominated the first 10 minutes and built their largest lead of the game at 16 points, 67-51, with 10:05 left. From there, the momentum swung back towards the Sharks, who battled the deficit down to five points with just over three minutes remaining. The moment was nearly identical to the Sharks’ last game against the Mocs, where NSU trailed by the same deficit with the same amount of time left.
From there, the Mocs outscored the Sharks, 9-2, down the stretch. During that stretch, Florida Southern shot 2-for-2 from the floor and 5-for-6 from the foul line. NSU committed three of their 13 second-half turnovers in the final three minutes.
The Sharks shot a season-best 58.7 percent from the floor, more than 12 percentage points higher than the home team. The Mocs made up for it with 13 3-pointers on 31 attempts. It was the most 3-point attempts the Sharks have faced in a regulation game this year.
On the offensive glass, the Mocs outrebounded NSU, 11-3. The Mocs also won the turnover battle, 18-20.
Jeangerard returned from a two-game hiatus and scored 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
The Sharks will return to the NSU Arena in the Don Taft University Center on Wednesday to face out-of-conference foe, Palm Beach Atlantic, at 7:30 p.m. The game will broadcast live on 640 Sports.
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