Box Score
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (11-12, 7-4 SSC) won a close battle against South Florida rivals Lynn (7-14, 1-10 SSC), 81-79, Wednesday in the NSU Arena.
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.) hit the game-winning bucket on a pull up jumper with three seconds left. NSU went back on defense and prevented a Brandon Smith 3-pointer from stealing the game at the buzzer.
Page finished with 17 points, three assists and three steals. Overall, NSU was led by
Stian Berg (Jr., Baerum, Norway) who had 18 points on 5-for-10 shooting. He shot 2-for-4 from 3-point range and is now one trey away from shooting 50 percent from downtown on the season.
Justin Jeangerard (Jr., Weaverville, Calif.) had a team-best nine rebounds in addition to 13 points and three assists.
NSU allowed Lynn to shoot 50 percent from the floor and make nine 3-pointers. However, the Sharks did not give away many possessions and only committed four turnovers the entire game. It is the lowest amount of turnovers the Sharks have committed in the NCAA era.
"Lynn played really hard," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "I felt badly for their kids, they deserved to win that game. We slept walked through the first half and other than a brief period in the second half, the whole game was a nightmare for us. Our effort on the defensive end was as bad as it was all year. Our attention to detail and execution of the scouting report was very disappointing. Give a whole lot of credit to Lynn, I thought Jeff Price and his staff did a great coaching job and I think his kids outplayed us. But as I told our guys after the game, the mark of a good team is being able to win games on nights like this."
NSU entered the game on a shooting tear, but came out flat in the first half, shooting 12-for-31 before the break. After jumping out to a 16-10 lead, Lynn took over the game and outscored the Sharks 31-19 over the final 13 minutes. Lynn was led by Aaron Harrison, who scored 18 first-half points on 9-for-10 shooting. He finished the game with 28 points. NSU shot 3-for-13 from downtown in the first half.
Lynn held its largest lead at eight points by scoring the first bucket of the half. From there, NSU slammed on the gas pedal and went on a 23-10 run over a seven minute span. During that stretch, NSU shot a blistering 8-for-11 from the floor. Lynn's Josh Soto cut NSU's lead to two points with a 3-pointer, but the Sharks struck back with five unanswered points to give NSU its largest lead at 63-56.
The Fighting Knights stayed in the fight and refused to let the game get out of hand. They tied it at 68 all with seven minutes left and never let the Sharks lead by more than four points for the remainder of the game. It seemed as if Lynn had taken over when Kaleb Clyburn hit a 3-pointer with 1:26 left, which put his team up by two points. However,
Brian Cahill (Jr., Arlignton, Va.), who returned from injury, barreled through the lane to reach the foul line and even the score.
Lynn made an attempt to regain the lead in the final minute, but missed two layups, with the final attempt getting cleaned up by Jeangerard. Out of a timeout, NSU gave the ball to Page who delivered with a midrange dagger. Lynn moved the ball across the court within three seconds and had a solid look, but could not knock down the game-winning corner 3-pointer.
NSU finished the night shooting 46 percent from the floor (27-for-59), 32 percent from 3-point range (9-for-28) and 78 percent from the foul line (18-for-23).
Cahill had a solid return, scoring 10 points on 3-for-5 shooting and collecting a team-best five assists.
Casey Carroll (So., Youngstown, Ohio) had 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting with seven rebounds.
Maurice Fuller (Jr., Westfield, Ind.) rounded out all NSU scorers with 12 points on 5-for-11 shooting.
"I thought Maurice Fuller and Justin Jeangerard both played really well and extremely hard," stated Tuell. "If we had gotten the same effort from other guys it wouldn't have been that close. But again, I don't care if your Kentucky or Arizona or Michigan, you're going to have games like this. You look up any good, successful team and there's going to be a few close games or close scores that leave you shaking your head. The bottom line is, this league is just that balanced and the difference between No. 2 and No. 9 was two points. That's more indicative of the league we play in than the final result of the game."
With five games remaining, NSU finds itself in sole possession of second place in the Sunshine State Conference. The Sharks will hit the road Saturday to defend that claim at Rollins at 4 p.m. The game will broadcast on 640 Sports.
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