LIVE STREAMING | LIVE STATS | GAME NOTESFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 20 Nova Southeastern University women's basketball team looks to keep pace at the top of the Sunshine State Conference standings, taking on No. 9 Florida Tech Saturday at the NSU Arena at 2 p.m.
The Sharks (12-4, 4-2 SSC) are behind FIT (15-1, 5-1 SSC) and Rollins, also 5-1, on the league ledger. The Panthers fell for the first time all season on Wednesday, to those Rollins Tars, 72-65 in Melbourne. That same night, NSU was topped by Palm Beach Atlantic, 66-60.
FIT was just one of three undefeated women's teams in all of Division II prior to Wednesday. In that game, the Tars outscored the Panthers 52-39 in the second half, and held the league's leading scorer, FIT's Kayk Wilson, to just seven points on 2-of-22 shooting (and 0-of-12 from behind the arc).
Wilson still tops the conference, and is 21st in DII, at 20.3 points per game. She makes 3.1 3-pointers a contest, first in the SSC and 11th nationally. Jasmire Brown is at 15 points per game, and ranks second conference-wide in free throw percentage at 87.5. Their third double-digit scorer is Shequana Harris at 13.6, and Tiesha Flagler is at 7.6 points and a team-best 7.9 rebounds (second in the SSC).
The Panthers lead the conference in scoring offense (81.5), scoring margin (16.4), steals (13.3), blocked shots (4.6) and turnover margin (7.4). They are the top 3-point shooting team and 3-point defenders, making 7.9 per game at a clip of 37.5, but allowing teams to shoot just 23.8 percent. Kaila Callender, Harris and Brown are first, second, and third in the league in 3-point percentage.
This will be the third time this season the Sharks have faced a top-10 opponent, and they are still searching for their first win after being topped by then-No. 9 Tampa (76-75), and last week, by No. 10 Rollins (74-61). Likewise, it's Florida Tech's third game against a ranked opponent, and they're 1-1 (winning over No. 21 Tampa before falling Wednesday to No. 14 Rollins).
