FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team took their season opener, behind 43 combined points from returnees Chris Page and Harrison Goodrick, holding off St. Thomas by the score of 84-80 on Monday night.
 
Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) scored 17 of his 28 points in the first half (17 in 11 minutes, and 28 total in just 23 minutes), while Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) came through with 15, a team-high six rebounds, along with four assists and three steals.

"We won, and that's always a good thing," said head coach Gary Tuell. "St. Thomas is a very talented, well-coached and athletic team. They would be a good team in our league so this was a tough test, especially for our young guys."

Though the veterans filled the stat sheet, oftentimes, it was the Shark newcomers that propelled the team. Midway through the second half was the 10th and final tie of the game, 56-56 with 10:45 left. After a Goodrick layup, true freshman Austin Marciniak (Uniontown, Ohio) hit back-to-back 3's to give the team what was at that point their biggest lead, eight at 64-56. Late in the game, after St. Thomas had cut it to two (80-78), sophomore transfer BJ Edwards (Fort Myers, Fla.) made hay at the free throw line, making 4-of-6 in the final 15 seconds to seal the win. All told, he had eight points, a Shark-best five assists, and tied Goodrick with the team's high of three steals. Marciniak added seven points in 10 minutes of action.
 
The Sharks won despite a 50-33 deficit in rebounding, led by 6-11, 300-pound St. Thomas center Raheem Bowman's 15, seven on the offensive end. He scored 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting and was one of two Bobcats with a double-double. The Shark defense held Michael Walker to just 11 points (after 42 in the season opener), but contributed otherwise with 11 assists. Armand Shoon led St. Thomas with 19, while Tim Sada added 15.

"We are not a great rebounding team but we can certainly do a much better job than we did tonight," said Tuell. "We gave them entirely too many second shots.  We can fix that. It may take a while, but eventually we'll get that fixed. Overall, I'm proud of our guys. Proud that they competed and worked hard and happy for them that they won with a lot of contributions from different guys."

Nick Pendergast (Sr., Bridgewater, Conn.), another debuting Shark, had six points, as did returning guard Mike Chalas (Sr., Pembroke, Pines, Fla.). Providing a spark in a flurry early in the second half was Jordan Stookey (So., Warsaw, Ind.) with a juke and a layup amongst the much taller Bobcat defense, then an assist on the very next play leading to a breakaway Goodrick dunk.

"Chris Page gave us a lift on the offensive end and did a good job, which is what you expect from an All-America candidate," said Tuell. "Beyond that, we got a lift from different individuals at different points in the game. The group that really gave us a great effort and helped us break away in the second half was Jordan Stookey, Austin Marciniak, Nikita Orap (Fr., Moscow, Russia), Dwayne Gibson, Jr. (Fr., Indianapolis, Ind.) and Harrison Goodrick, and that group includes three freshmen and a walk-on sophomore who barely played a year ago. Those guys really energized when they were in there."

All 14 Sharks that dressed played, and 11 of the 14 made it into the scoring column. Besides the five starters – Page, Goodrick, Edwards, Chalas and Troy Spears (So., Martinsville, Ind.) – five others played nine minutes or more.

"We're going to play the first five games of the season – and all five are really tough opponents – and do the best we can to spread the minutes out among all the guys," said Tuell. "We're not hung up on winning and losing in early November or early December. If we prioritize winning over teaching and fixing mistakes and helping guys get better, then we're chasing fool's gold. For this team to have a chance to do something special later in the year we need to stay the course, bring the young and new guys along, and be committed to doing this as a family."
 
To that end, the Sharks turn right around for a Wednesday matchup, their Sunshine State Conference opener, hosting Lynn on the back end of a women and men's doubleheader. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the NSU Arena.

"Lynn will be an enormous test for this team," said Tuell. "Our young guys have never seen the kind of pressure defense Lynn will bring. If we struggled against St. Thomas, which is a very good team, it's scary to think how we'll do against a great club like Lynn. We have one day to get a whole lot better in a lot of areas if we're going to compete against Lynn. But we have to understand this is a long season and games in November and December are learning experiences. We'll take whatever happens and learn from it, keep teaching, and keep moving forward."