Box Score
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (4-9, 1-2 SSC) earned its first Sunshine State Conference win Wednesday, defeating the Lynn Fighting Knights (6-6, 0-2 SSC) on the road, 62-57.
"It wasn't pretty but we were playing short-handed on the road," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "Anytime you win on the road in this league you have to feel good. Winning without one of your leading scorers is even better.
"Truthfully, I don't know how much better we would have been if
Justin Jeangerard (Jr., Weaverville, Calif.) had played. We probably would have been a little better in our press and perhaps our offense would have run more smoothly. But he didn't score a point in our loss at Eckerd Saturday, and Lynn probably would have drubbed us just as badly on the glass with Justin in there. He's only 6-2 or 6-3 so I doubt if we would have fared any better keeping them off the offensive glass than we did with the two freshmen,
Cameron Denney (Fr., Norwell, Ind.) and
Brandon Patchan (Fr., Tampa, Fla.) in there.
NSU was led by an excellent effort by
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.), who scored 22 points and had a team-best seven rebounds. He shot 9-for-18 from the floor in a loud road arena.
Maurice Fuller (Jr., Westfield, Ind.) scored 13 points while
Brian Cahill (Jr., Arlington, Va.) chipped in 11 with a team-high five assists.
"We got nice offensive lifts from Chris Page, Mo Fuller and Brian Cahill and it was good to see Cahill back playing closer to his potential after being slowed by an ankle injury," said Tuell. "I thought he was terrific in spearheading our press and helping to get that nine point lead at the half."
The Fighting Knights made a solid effort defending their home court early, jumping out to a 17-8 lead over the first nine minutes. However, Lynn went cold quick, not scoring for a six minute stretch. NSU forced the home team to make six turnovers during the stretch and shoot 0-for-5 while the Sharks scored 14 unanswered points. Lynn scored one more field goal with four minutes left, but NSU answered back with an 8-1 run to enter halftime up, 29-20.
Lynn committed 14 turnovers in the first half to NSU's seven and shot 8-for-22 from the floor. Fuller paced the Sharks early, scoring nine points on 3-for-5 shooting in the first half. Overall, NSU 11-for-28 in the first half.
The Sharks entered the game undefeated when leading at halftime, a trend that continued through Wednesday. They shot efficient enough to hold off the home team in the second half, draining shots at a 50 percent clip. NSU led by as much as 13 points, but Lynn stayed in the game until the final horn. The Fighting Knights came within six points of NSU multiple times, but Page and Cahill both made clutch shots to keep the team ahead and seal the win.
In the end, Lynn had several opportunities to score, grabbing 21 of 40 available offensive rebounds. However, the Sharks' blistering press forced 24 turnovers and kept Lynn to a 34.5 percent shooting mark. Lynn also finished 3-for-21 from 3-point range. NSU finished the game shooting 22-for-50 and made six less turnovers than the home squad.
"Overall, we weren't very good," confessed Tuell. "We didn't move the ball well, we didn't make good decisions with the ball and we didn't play much like a team at times. We were horrendous blocking them off the boards. I thought we just wore down and didn't have much left in the tank for the final five or six minutes. But we had enough left to gut it out and hold on.
"We have so many areas that need improvement I'm not sure where to begin. I guess we need to start with conditioning because that's the first time this year we seemed to be tired in the second half. And we definitely had some tired kids hanging on the ropes at the end of that game."
Casey Carroll (So., Youngstown, Ohio) served as NSU's rock off the bench, scoring six points and securing five rebounds.
Cameron Denney (Fr., Norwell, Ind.) earned his first career start and also collected five rebounds, three on offensive.
Stian Berg (Jr., Baerum, Norway) tallied four points, two rebounds and two assists.
The Sharks will break from conference play to compete against Palm Beach Atlantic Saturday in West Palm Beach, Fla. at 4 p.m.
"We have two days to get ready for a vastly improved Palm Beach Atlantic team," stated Tuell. "We have a lot of work to do. I doubt the coaching staff gets much sleep in the next 72 hours. But that's fine. We can sleep on Sunday. God created the seventh day so basketball coaches could get some rest."
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