Box Score

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (5-4) earned a big win entering the winter break by defeating the No. 18 Missouri-St. Louis Tritons (8-2), 82-58, Sunday in the NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center.
 
"Any time you play hard you give yourself a chance to win no matter who we play," said head coach Gary Tuell. "The disappointing thing for me is that we've given a supreme effort twice this year, one was a loss to Florida Gulf Coast and the other was today. We've had games where we've played well but we haven't competed as hard as those two games. I hope our guys have learned from the losses against Midwestern State and West Texas A&M just how important it is to play hard. I think those two teams taught us a heck of a lesson about what it is to compete and I think our guys learned.
 
"We were about as good today as we can be in terms of our focus, execution on the offensive end, defensive effort and the way we fought on the boards. Missouri St. Louis is a heck of a team. They came in here and had a tough fight with West Texas A&M, who are a really good team. They got their feelings hurt yesterday and I'm sure they were looking forward to playing us today, but I don't think they were expecting to play the team that showed up."
 
Chris Page (Jr., Plainfield, Ind.) scored 20 points against the Tritons on 7-for-11 shooting and a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Justin Jeangerard (Sr., Weaverville, Calif.) collected a team-best nine rebounds while Stian Berg (Sr., Baerum, Norway) set a new career high with seven assists.
 
"We started a different lineup today," Tuell said. "We went with our old guys, the four seniors and Chris Page. We decided to go small with that lineup, not so much because I wasn't happy with Harrison Goodrick (So., Sydeny, Australia) at center. In fact, I thought he was playing better than anybody. I was looking to find a way to get these guys to get their mojo back, get their confidence back, get them to play a way they played a year ago in terms of sharing and moving the ball. It was more of a challenge for them to play the way that made us successful a year ago. I told them I needed to see if they can do that. I thought they went out and showed me they can still do it. I thought Harrison was selfless, he came off the bench and maybe was our most important player today."
 
NSU came out with intensity on the defensive end and flustered the Tritons over the first 20 minutes. The Sharks jumped out to an 8-2 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers and would stay ahead for the remainder of the game. Halfway through the period, Mike Chalas (Jr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.) drained a deep trey to give NSU its first double digit lead at 21-11. The Sharks poured it on from there, and Brian Cahill's (Sr., Arlington, Va.) buzzer-beating 3-pointer before the break gave NSU a 39-20 advantage.
 
The Sharks held the Tritons to a paltry 6-for-21 shooting in the first half and caused eight turnovers, committing half that amount themselves. NSU shot 12-for-28 before the break, but drained seven of 13 3-point attempts and went 8-for-9 from the foul line.
 
"We were awfully good at both ends of the floor," said Tuell. "We've had a chance to work on a different defense than what we've been playing and we were able to use that. Our guys figured it out and it was really good for us, it made a huge difference. In the first half they had more turnovers than field goals, so I knew we were getting a terrific effort. I told the guys at halftime, it doesn't matter what defense we play it matters how hard we play."
 
The Tritons made a great effort to climb back into the contest in the second half, increasing their shooting percentage to 44.8 percent while shooting 40 percent from deep. However, NSU shot 16-for-24 in the second half and once again went 7-for-13 from downtown.
 
NSU maintained its 19 point lead for a majority of the period, and led, 59-40, with 9:40 remaining. From there, NSU created its largest lead of the game, going on a 10-3 run to increase the lead to 26 points. Missouri-St. Louis shot 5-for-10 down the stretch, but the clock allowed NSU to cruise to victory.
 
In the end, NSU shot 53.8 percent from both the floor and 3-point range. NSU also made 13 trips to the free throw line, scoring on 12 of them. The Sharks won the rebounding battle, 35-22, securing eight offensive rebounds in the process.
 
Chalas and Goodrick each finished the game with 11 points on a combined 8-for-10 shooting. Goodrick also chipped in three rebounds and a career-high four assists. Cahill returned to the starting lineup and tallied 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
 
"I thought Mike Chalas was terrific off the bench. I know his mom has been ill and she was here today and had a chance to see him play," stated Tuell. "Harrison Goodrick was outstanding, especially on the defensive end. He's sort of anchoring our new defense and gave a great effort. But I thought all the guys played really hard and really well and I was really proud of what they did today.
 
"This was a great way to go into the holidays and hopefully it's a confidence builder for the start of conference play. When you open up with five out of six on the road, and the only home game is Florida Southern, you're going to need all the confidence you can get to win those games."
 
NSU will take its mandated winter break and return on Jan. 3 in St. Petersburg, Fla. to face Eckerd at 4 p.m.