CANYON, Texas – Eastern New Mexico broke open a close game with an early second-half run, sending the Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team to their second loss in as many days at the Pak-a-Sak West Texas Thanksgiving Classic, 78-67 on Saturday night.
 
The Sharks (2-3) scored five of the first half's final six points and trailed by just three at the break, 30-27. However, ENMU (2-4) turned things around quickly to start the second 20 minutes, embarking on a 10-2 run that would eventually balloon to 16-4, pushing them ahead by a dozen.
 
The closest NSU would cut it to was eight, as Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) at one point poured in 10 straight for the team, and his 3-pointer with 6:11 to go made it 64-56. But almost just as quickly, ENMU scored eight straight, and were up nine or more the remainder of the game.

"Our effort and team enthusiasm was back to where we need it to be, but our execution – especially on the part of the young guys – is not good enough right now," said head coach Gary Tuell. "We continue to have struggles on the defensive end, and we don't apply enough ball pressure, distort vision or disrupt passing lanes. We have a lot of work to do as coaches and players if we are going to become the defensive team we need to be."
 
Page, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, led all scorers with 23 points, and was the only Shark in double digits on Saturday. Next was BJ Edwards (So., Fort Myers, Fla.) and Troy Spears (So., Martinsville, Ind.) with eight points apiece, while Casey Carroll (R-Jr., Youngstown, Ohio) and Dwayne Gibson, Jr. (Fr., Indianapolis, Ind.) each had six.
 
"In nearly 30 years as a head coach, I can't recall many weekends of basketball as frustrating as this," said Tuell. "We lose Nick Pendergast (Sr., Bridgewater, Conn.), our most efficient player at both ends of the floor, five minutes into the first game on Friday, and of course he was out tonight as well. Harrison Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) lived in foul trouble and essentially did not play either night. Casey Carroll made it through the Friday game was but was on the sideline most of tonight, and Chris Page was sick, as was Troy Spears. Several guys, maybe as many as 12 or 13, were feeling lousy all weekend from a bug that has been running through our team for almost a month."

Other stat leaders included Spears and Mike Chalas (Sr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.), who tied for the team's best with three assists, while Chalas and Remi Farrell (Jr., Woodbridge, Conn.) each corralled six rebounds to lead the way. Farrell also blocked three shots on the night.

"I do think Remi Farrell and Dwayne Gibson both came off the bench and played well tonight," said Tuell. "I thought BJ Edwards and Mike Chalas were much better tonight, and Troy Spears really battled for us in there. He is a very tough guy."
 
The Greyhounds had five with 10 or more, led by Kevin Saiz, who hit five 3-pointers for all 15 of his points. All told, the victors made 11-of-23 from behind the arc, including eight in the second half.

"Besides our defensive issues, we have really struggled to make threes," said Tuell. "I don't know if we can run a hybrid Princeton offense if we don't shoot the three better than we have in our first five games. We aren't a very good shooting team right now."
 
The Sharks will still be out-of-conference for their next matchup, but against a familiar opponent in nearby Palm Beach Atlantic, a provisional member of the SSC. They will pair off at 7:30 this upcoming Wednesday at the NSU Arena.

"We're banged up pretty badly, have a lot of sick guys right now and are sitting in the middle of an ice storm," said Tuell. "We've had our feelings hurt out here and have two very tough games at home this week ... but we have great guys. We'll eventually get home, get healthy, and figure it all out. We aren't discouraged; we're just looking forward to getting home, getting healthy and getting better."