FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 10 Nova Southeastern women's basketball team looks to build upon one of the team's best regular seasons in program history, with the next step being this week's SSC Championships, beginning Thursday in Kissimmee, Fla.
The Sharks (22-4, 12-4 SSC) finished in a tie for second place in the conference standings, but lost the tiebreaker to Rollins to slot as the tournament's No. 3 seed. As such, they will first face the No. 8 Eckerd Tritons (11-15, 4-12 SSC) in Thursday night's final quarterfinal game, 7:30 p.m., at the Silver Spurs Arena.
Free admission will also be granted to the first 50 Shark fans in Shark gear for this game, and admission to it and the entirety of the rest of both the men's and women's tournament is free for NSU students with a valid SharkCard.
NSU took both games in the regular season series against the Tritons. In St. Petersburg on Jan. 4, the then-undefeated Sharks won their program-record 10th straight game despite trailing by 14 points in the first half. They held Eckerd to 14 percent shooting and just 13 points after the break in winning, 69-50. Four Sharks were in double digits in scoring, led by
Taylor Buie (So., Puyallup, Wash.) with 18, while
Jasmine Wilkins (R-Jr., Miami) was just a rebound shy of a double-double, with 16 points and nine boards.
The Sharks outrebounded Eckerd 40-32 despite two Tritons having 10 or more rebounds: Liga Vente with 13 and Ivana Grbic's 10. Vente added a team-high 12 points for a double-double, while Amy Buccilla added 11 points and Kayla Bowlin 10.
In the rematch in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 5, there was no drama after a 22-3 first-half spurt by the home team, and as much as a 39-point lead in an 84-48 rout. All 10 Sharks that dressed scored at least four points, and the team shot 52.8 percent from the field (28-of-53) while making 12-of-25 3-pointers. Buie again had 18, Wilkins was next with 14 and added eight rebounds, while
Alexis Murphy (So., Carlisle, Ohio) had 11 points off the Shark bench, as that group outscored their Triton counterparts, 34-11.
Eckerd was shorthanded in the second game. They had only eight healthy players to start, and with two fouling out plus a late-game injury, the team was forced to play the last four-plus minutes with just five players. Buccilla had the team's high with 16 points, while Rana Thomas added 11. Vente, the team's leading scorer and rebounder coming in, was held to two points and three boards in only 16 minutes of play.
All told in the two games, NSU shot 49 percent and held Eckerd to just 31 percent from the field , outscoring them by an average of 76.5-49.0.
Jessica Russi (Sr., Lake Mary, Fla.), who finished the regular season as the nation's leader in assists, had 13 and eight, respectively, in the two wins.
An NSU victory on Thursday would move the team into the semifinals, when they would play the winner of No. 3 Rollins and No. 9 Florida Southern on Saturday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. The women's title game is scheduled for Sunday, March 9 at 3:30 p.m.
Tipoff from the Silver Spurs Arena will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. NSU will provide live audio coverage
HERE, while the SSC will have their broadcast available
HERE. You can follow along with live stats after the game tips
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.
