ERIE, Penn. – The No. 10 Nova Southeastern women's basketball team advanced to their first DII Final Four in school history, holding off Concordia-St. Paul on Tuesday in the Elite Eight round at the Erie Insurance Arena, 72-64.
The Sharks (29-4) were led by
Amanda Burakoski's (Sr., Brooklyn, N.Y.) 27 points, matching her career high, while she added 11 rebounds. They move on to the national semifinals on Wednesday, to take on No. 5 West Texas A&M, 31-2 this year, at 6 p.m. NSU won despite shooting their lowest field goal percentage of the season, 26.5 percent, but they outrebounded the Golden Bears (28-9), 60-42, marking the year's highest rebounding total.
"Clearly it was not the prettiest game," said head coach LeAnn Freeland. "If someone would have told us we'd shoot 27 percent from the field and win, I'd probably say, 'You're crazy.' I'm really impressed by our players and their effort and determination to pull this out."
NSU weathered multiple Concordia runs in the second half. Up 11, 34-23 with 18:10 to go, the Golden Bears went on an 11-2 run to cut the margin to two, 36-34 (14:18). There would later be ties at 43-43 and 45-45, but Concordia would never take the lead.
From 45-45, with 8:42 left, the Sharks mounted a 10-2 stretch of their own, moving ahead 55-46 at 4:55. It would still be a 10-point NSU advantage at 1:17, 64-54, and though Concordia would score 10 of the next 14 to cut it to four with 15 seconds left (68-64), the Sharks scored the last four for the final margin.
In all, over the last minute, NSU made 8-of-10 free throws, and their 31 made free throws and 41 attempts were also both new season highs. Burakoski was 11-of-12 from the line, while
Danielle Robinson (Jr., Fort Lauderdale) was 7-of-10 and
Jessica Russi (Sr., Lake Mary, Fla.) was 5-of-8. That trio was the team's three double-digit scorers on Tuesday, with Robinson notching 14 and Russi 11.
Of the Sharks' 60 rebounds, besides Burakoski's 11,
Jasmine Wilkins (R-Jr., Miami) added nine,
Molly Blomer (So., West Chester, Ohio) seven, and six each came from Robinson and
Richelle Carach (Sr., Naples, Fla.).
Concordia was led by Rachel Hansen with 16 points. Carissa Wolyniec added 15, Anika Whiting 14 and Ameshia Kearney 12. Kionda Hicks had seven first-half blocked shots on her way to eight in the game, while the team had 14 total.
The Sharks held the Golden Bears to 24 percent shooting in the first half and just 33 percent for the entire game. They next face a West Texas A&M squad that had very little trouble in advancing past Limestone on Tuesday, 81-44.
Game time on Wednesday from Erie is at 6 p.m. It will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network (channel listings: DirecTV 221, Dish TV 158, Comcast 854, Time Warner 1322), on NCAA.com on their webstream
here, and audio for NSU is available
here. Live stats after the tip will be available at the NCAA GameCenter,
here.
For the latest NSU news and results, be sure to visit
www.NSUSharks.com. To have results sent directly to your cell phone via text message, sign up for SMS text message delivery by
clicking here. For the latest news, be sure to sign up for the Shark Alert E-newsletter by
clicking here.
