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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 8 Nova Southeastern University women's basketball team begins a stretch of six straight home games over the next 32 days' time, starting with local adversary Palm Beach Atlantic this Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
The Sharks (6-1, 3-0 SSC) took two out of three games last week, culminating with a win on their longest road trip of the regular season, overcoming Valdosta State on Sunday, 70-58. The team that handed them their first loss of the season, Washburn, was defeated themselves by the Sharks' next opponent the following day. PBA (1-5) picked up their first win of the year, 60-53, over the Ichabods on Saturday afternoon.
Prior to that, the Sailfish had been on the receiving end of four extremely close losses, all of which were eight points or less with two going to overtime. They are playing a home-and-home series with every Sunshine State Conference school this year as a provisional member of the conference, and three of those decisions came against those foes: 64-56 in OT to fellow provisional member Embry-Riddle; 65-56, also in extra time, to Eckerd; and 60-55 to still-undefeated Florida Southern.
The team's leading point-getter is senior guard Nina Krstic, scoring 14.8 per game, just a tick ahead of sophomore newcomer Hannah Grim's 14.0. Three Sailfish are averaging right at seven rebounds or more: Ayanna Holmes (7.8), Nkiru Anyagaligbo (7.2) and Krstic (6.8).
The Sharks continued with their early-season pattern of spreading the ball around and finding the hot hand, possibly none hotter thus far this year than
Alexis Murphy (Sr., Carlisle, Ohio) on Sunday. She nailed six 3-pointers, all in the second half, against Valdosta State, towards a new career best of 19. At 6.7 points per game, she is right in the middle of now eight on the team that average between 15.7 (
Taylor Buie (R-Jr., Puyallup, Wash.) and 4.6 (
Sarah Kelly, Fr., Huntington, W. Va.) points per game.
Also in between those ends of the spectrum is point guard
Monaye Merritt (R-Sr., Philadelphia, Pa.), second in scoring (13.0), but the team leader in multiple other categories, including rebounds (6.6) and assists (3.9), free throw percentage, steals, blocks and minutes played.
Kayla Wright (Jr., Lauderhill, Fla.) scores 11.9 and pulls down 5.1 rebounds per game in just 14.9 minutes a contest; when extrapolated to a 40-minute game, those averages are 31.9 and 13.8. The other Sharks falling amid those point parameters are
Molly Blomer (Sr., West Chester, Ohio) at 9.0 per, including at least one made 3-pointer in each game;
Katie Barnard (R-So., Granger, Ind.), making 56 percent of her shots towards 6.3 ppg; and
Ida Krogh (Sr., Aarhus, Denmark), putting up twin averages of 4.9 points and 4.9 rebounds.
NSU is looking to avenge an upset by the Sailfish last season, 66-60 in late January in West Palm Beach. The Sharks had won seven straight in the series and still hold an all-time 20-4 advantage even after the loss.
