Box Score FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team (4-2, 1-0 SSC) used a hot-shooting night to take down the Tampa Spartans (3-4, 0-1 SSC), 86-82, Saturday at the NSU Arena in the Don Taft University Center in the team's Sunshine State Conference opener.
Chris Page (Jr., Plainfield, Ind.) continued his trend of strong play, tying a career-high 28 points on 10-for-18 shooting from the floor and 5-for-10 shooting from deep. He also had a team-best five assists and five boards.
Justin Jeangerard (Sr., Weaverville, Calif.) led the team in rebounds with six and had a deadly efficient shooting performance. He went 6-for-9 from the floor and 5-for-6 from 3-point range to total 17 points. The senior also dished out four assists and made three steals, both of which are season highs.
"Any time you win a game in this league it's both a relief and a joy," said head coach Gary Tuell. "Tampa's awfully good, I think they are a better team than they were a year ago. The big guy (Eugene) McCory inside presents a lot of problems. You have to game plan for him, if you don't he's going to get 30 points. I was really pleased with
Harrison Goodrick's (So., Sydney, Australia) defense against McCrory and the team's overall defense in terms of trying to neutralize his size and abilities.
"But it caused us problems in other places because, in our defense, our center is responsible for plugging the middle and preventing all the other drives. But with Goodrick focused on McCrory, our other four guys didn't do a very good job of staying in a stance and winning battles on the perimeter. I thought we did a better job in the second half, but we have a long way to go and have a lot of work to do if we are going to be a good defensive team."
NSU were outsized by Tampa, but nullified any of Tampa's advantages with a stellar shooting display. The Sharks shot 51.7 percent (31-for-60) from the floor and 50 percent (17-for-34) from 3-point range. Tampa shot over 50 percent from both the floor and 3-point range, but the Spartans could not keep up with the Sharks' long distance output, taking half of the 3-point attempts of NSU. The Sharks also took care of the ball, winning the turnover battle, 13-8.
The Sharks started the game with hot shooting, coming out to an 8-0 run. NSU led for the first seven and a half minutes, before a 3-pointer from Austin Rettig tied the game at 18 all. Eugene McCrory took Tampa's first lead with a fast break dunk, but
Stian Berg (Sr., Baerum, Norway) cooled Tampa's momentum with a long unassisted trey.
Brian Cahill (Sr., Arlington, Va.) followed up with his first 3-pointer, reestablishing NSU's lead.
Tampa would answer back and work their way to a 39-34 lead with 3 minutes left in the half, the Spartans' largest of the game. However, a pair of 3-pointers lifted NSU to a 41 point tie with Tampa at the half.
NSU's offensive numbers were consistent from one half to the next, but the difference came in forcing nine Tampa turnovers, preventing the Spartans from holding pace. The Sharks started the second half on a 14-3 run, led by a 4-for-5 3-point shooting display. After McCrory tried to calm NSU's crowd with a basket in the paint, Berg blew the roof off the Shark Tank with a near-corner 3-pointer that was banked in off the glass.
"I thought Justin Jeangerad gave us a big lift in the second half," said Tuell. "I think he made three 3-pointers at one point that created some separation and with that, we were able to hang on for the rest of the game. Chris Page stepped up after Justin cooled off, he made two or three 3's to help keep the lead where it was."
The Sharks stretched their lead to 13 points with 14 minutes left, but Tampa would not go away quietly. Tampa stayed in the game and eventually tied the contest at 80 apiece. With the game on the line, Cahill found Jeangerard for his biggest 3-point basket of the game. Tampa would fail to score on the next two possessions, while NSU sealed the game at the free throw line.
Berg and Goodrick would each score 12 points against Tampa. Berg finished 3-for-5 from 3-point range and recorded three assists. Goodrick shot 50 percent from the floor and collected four rebounds. Cahill came off the bent to score 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting with four assists.
"I thought Brian played a terrific game, doing a little bit of everything, which is what we want him to do in addition to being a leader and playing hard," expressed Tuell. "We've got to get our freshman better and we've got to get more guys on the bench involved. We've got to do a lot of work on the boards. We only had two offensive rebounds, we can be a lot better than that. We aren't athletic, we don't run fast and we don't jump high, but there's no reason we can't get more than 2 offensive rebounds.
"We are in first place until January, we are happy to be there and will see what happens from here. Our road schedule in January is brutal, I don't know how we'll get through that because we are on the road almost everywhere and come home to play (No. 4) Florida Southern. We'll use these next three games (Midwestern State Dec. 13, West Texas A&M Dec. 18 and Missouri-St. Louis Dec. 21), against three of the best teams on our schedule. Look at their history, they are all Elite-8, Final Four level teams. We'll use these three games to get better defensively and get better on the boards, and give our young guys more playing time to get them prepared for conference play."
NSU will return to the NSU Arena in one week to face Midwestern State at 7:30 p.m.
