Box Score
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men's basketball team (13-17) ended its season by going 1-1 in the Sunshine State Conference Tournament after falling in the second round Friday to the Eckerd Tritons (17-13), 66-52.
"First of all, congratulations to Eckerd," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "After the way their regular season ended, they'e been the surprise team of the tournament. That takes leadership and character and I wish them well. I couldn't be more proud of our guys if we had won. I'm not disappointed in them, but I am disappointed for them. Obviously the loss of
Casey Carroll (So., Youngstown, Ohio) had a huge impact. He's been arguably our best player the past month. And because of his versatility, we are able to play him at four different positions. He plays all four extremely well. Without Casey's contribution we had to ask guys to play longer than we wanted them to if we were going to have any chance to win."
NSU was led by
Brian Cahill (Jr., Arlington, Va.) who scored 15 points and drained four 3-pointers. All-SSC honoree
Chris Page (So., Plainfield, Ind.) scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Stian Berg (Jr., Baerum, Norway) was the leading distributor at five assists to go with six points and five rebounds.
NSU struggled from the floor in its final game of the season, shooting 33 percent (20-for-59) and 23 percent from 3-point range (8-for-35). The struggles started at the start of the night, with NSU making two of its first 10 shots. The Sharks found a rhythm after that, knocking down the next three shots to tie the game at 13 all.
The Sharks played their best basketball over the next eight minutes, going on a 15-5 run in which they shot 5-or-8 from the floor. The lead would be the largest of the night for NSU. Eckerd came firing back and outscored the Sharks, 17-5, over the five final minutes of the half. The Tritons led at the break, 35-33.
NSU played efficiently in the first half, shooting 40 percent (12-for-30) and only committing two turnovers to Eckerd's seven. Cahill scored 12 of his 15 points in the opening half.
Eckerd reestablished its lead before the break and built on it at the start of the second period. NSU battled for the entire night, but could not find its shot over the final 20 minutes. The Sharks shot 8-for-29 and missed their first dozen 3-pointers. Eckerd needed just over four minutes to establish its first double-digit lead at 45-35. NSU stayed in the contest, and for the next ten minutes, would not fall behind by more than 12 points. However, the Sharks' cold second-half shooting prevented a comeback.
"After playing in overtime Wednesday night with essentially five guys, we had nothing in the tank in the second half," stated Tuell. "Our legs were dead. It's probably a good thing for the league that Eckerd advanced, because I'm not sure if we would be able to compete at all tomorrow. This is the best shooting team I've ever coached. I know people in this business love to say, if you live by the 3 you die by the 3, but that's a ridiculous statement. Whatever you live by, you eventually die by. We didn't have the legs we needed to knock down any open 3's. We got great looks all night. When a team that shoots as well as we do only makes four out of 10 free throws, that's a pretty good indication that they are playing with extreme fatigue. Our guys could make two out of 17 3's blindfolded. But that's what we shot in the second half, and it was all about fatigue.
"I thought the three freshmen,
Cameron Denney (Norwell, Ind.),
Remi Farrell (Woodbridge, Conn.) and
Brandon Patchan (Tampa, Fla.), did come in and give us a spark in the second half. They were able to defend, rebound and give three of our starters some rest for a few minutes. While they were in there they held down the fort. They did a great job for us and they should be proud of themselves."
The Tritons held their largest lead with a minute left at 66-50, before Farrell made the team's final jumper of the season. Eckerd will take on the tournament's top seed, Florida Southern, Saturday at noon. Farrell ended the game with four points on 2-for-2 shooting.
Maurice Fuller (Jr., Westfield, Ind.) scored nine points on four field goals.
"We did exactly what we wanted to do the first 20 minutes," said Tuell. "For the most part our guys followed the game plan beautifully. We mixed up our zone defenses and did a great job in the box-and-one on Josh Snodgrass. We really felt that to beat Eckerd, we had to limit their free throws, keep them from hurting us in the paint and do our best to keep them off the offensive glass. We didn't care how many 3's they shot or made. We just felt doing those first three things would be enough to win. Even with the fatigue in the second half, we held them to 66 points. There shooting percentages were low enough that if we had an ordinary night shooting the ball we would have had a great chance to win. Our discipline and focus on defense in the second half was not like the first, but that goes to both fatigue and our inability to make shots, which discouraged our kids. Anytime you don't make shots, your defense generally suffers. When you look at Snodgrass' performance, and he was playing as hard as he could, we limited him to no free throws, no field goals and no points, which was our game plan. He is terrific at getting to the foul line. He gets there 10 or 15 times a game, and we felt that taking that away from them would be huge. As a team they would only go to the line 13 times, and made seven, which is exactly what we were looking to do. We just couldn't keep up offensively."
The Sharks end a season that was greater than its overall record. NSU earned marquee victories in 2013-14, including a road win over NCAA Division I FIU, 77-59, and the team's first SSC Tournament victory since 2009 over annual powerhouse Rollins, 75-71 (OT). The Sharks will have the offseason to build around the 2013-14 student-athletes, all of which are eligible to return next season.
"I love the way we finished the game," stated Tuell. "I love how hard our kids were pressing and trapping at the end, despite their fatigue. That's what made us turn our season around. They showed great determination and character and a will to fight all the way to the end. It's always difficult when the season ends, it's like a death in the family. Something you invested so much time and energy in, something that was so enjoyable, is taken away when the season finally ends. But the good news for us is that we'll have most of these guys back next year. We don't have any seniors. We'll spend the offseason looking for one or two guys who fit our system and who can help us get better. We've already signed Troy Spears and we think he's going to be a great addition, not only as a person, but as a basketball player. We need to get Casey well, we need to get Brian some rest so he can get well and then we need to get busy improving on what we do and how we do it. We have a chance to have a special team next year. We're all tired, but we're all excited about the future. It's been a privilege to coach these guys. I don't know if I've had more fun with a team or been around a better group of people."
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.
