FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team took the undefeated and No. 17 Rollins Tars to the wire, but a 3-pointer with five seconds left gave the visitors a one-point victory, 75-74.
The Sharks (3-4, 1-2 SSC) trailed the Tars (9-0, 2-0 SSC) by as many as 10 in the first half, 22-12 at 10:35. From then until 3:52, NSU scored 12 of the next 15 points to cut it to one, and actually gained the lead momentarily a little over two minutes later, but Rollins scored the last five of the half to take a three-point lead into intermission.
Rollins scored four quick points coming out of the halftime break to go up seven, but the Sharks countered with 13 straight points to regain the lead, 42-36, 13:21. All told, before a Rollins free throw at 11:02, it was a 21-2 NSU run, giving the home team an advantage of 12, 50-38.
During that stretch of 6:51, the Sharks went 8-of-13, with
Harrison Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) scoring eight, to go along with three of his teammates making four 3-pointers. Conversely, Rollins missed all eight of their shots and committed four turnovers.
Just over four minutes later, after the Tars cut it to five, the Sharks scored 11 of the next 14, capped by two consecutive old-fashioned three-point plays by
Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.). The NSU lead was 13, their biggest to that point, at 61-48 (6:56).
Later, the margin was extended to 14, 64-50 (at 6:02) after the fourth 3-point goal of the night by
Mike Chalas (Sr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.), but the back-and-forth runs continued, with Rollins using a 13-3 spurt to cut it to four at 67-63 at 2:52. The lead was pushed back to eight, 74-66, after a steal and layup underneath the Sharks' basket by
BJ Edwards (So., Fort Myers, Fla.) at 1:28. Yet again, Rollins battled back, with Jeff Merton making two straight 3-point goals, the last with about 45 seconds remaining, for a two-point deficit (74-72).
The next Shark possession resulted in an offensive foul, and with 16.6 seconds left, Rollins brought the ball in. They fed the ball into the post, and Deion Clark found a wide-open Joey Galvis, who buried his sixth 3-pointer of the night. The Tars then stole the Shark in-bound attempt and dribbled out the clock for the victory.
"You can't play great for 35 minutes and stop playing the final five if you want to beat a team as well-coached and as good as Rollins," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "Hopefully we learned that lesson today. We did everything we wanted to do at both ends of the floor to give ourselves a chance to win. But when the lead was 14 with six to play we started celebrating and stopped working. You can't do that against a team the caliber of Rollins; heck, you can't do that against anyone. You have to have a champion's mentality in those situations. You have to have the resolve and the grit and the toughness to stretch the lead from 14 to 20 and you do that with your effort on the defensive end.
"I have great respect for Rollins and their coaches, and if we're going to lose one I'd rather it be to those guys than anyone else," Tuell continued. "But we turned a great effort into a charity ball the final six minutes. We made a lot of silly turnovers, and no one showed the poise or the confidence or the desire to take settle our team down and give them the confidence that everything is going to be okay. You can try to do that as coaches, and you can encourage and stroke them, but you need a leader on the floor who is going to make sure we take care of the ball, make sure we're working as hard as we can on the defensive end, and make sure a game like this one doesn't slip away. It's a great learning experience for our players, but it's a painful learning experience. Maybe we needed a different lineup on the floor at the end of the game, I don't know. But we need to figure that out because you don't play as well as we played, only to end up shooting yourself in the foot in the final few minutes."
Page would end up pacing the Sharks, scoring 14 of his 16 after the break with six rebounds as well. Chalas notched a career-high night of 15 points, including 5-of-7 3's, while Goodrick posted his second double-double of the year, with 14 points (6-of-10 shooting) and 13 rebounds (including five offensive). Also in double digits was
Nick Pendergast (Sr., Bridgewater, Conn.), scoring 11 off the bench in just 17 minutes.
"Harrison Goodrick was just terrific all night, at both ends of the floor," said Tuell. "I thought Mike Chalas was great at both ends and Troy Spears gave his usual blue-collar, tough-work-ethic performance. It was nice to have Nick Pendergast and Casey Carroll (R-Jr., Youngstown, Ohio) back on the court. Dwayne Gibson Jr. (Fr., Indianapolis, Ind.) really did a great job for us. He's growing every game and playing very well for a freshman. Chris Page did some really great things for us but we needed him to make a few better decisions down the stretch. We'll figure it out. At least we know we can play with a highly-regarded, highly-ranked team. I hate the outcome of this game but I love this team's future." Galvis led Rollins with 20, but wasn't the only Tar to make six 3-pointers, as Merton did towards his 19. Sharif Almulla had 18, with Clark adding 12 and nine rebounds.
"I thought our defense was excellent for most of the first 35 minutes," said Tuell. "We held them to 53 points for 35 minutes and then let them get 22 in the final five ... that's crazy. That can't happen if you're paying attention to detail, keeping your focus and working to nail the coffin shut. We had them at the undertaker's but we didn't close the coffin. We gave them new life with some sloppy turnovers and lazy defense down the stretch. Give Rollins credit. When we opened the door for them their guys came roaring through. That's why they're 9-0 and ranked 17th in the nation. Do I think we're as good as them? Absolutely, yes. Did we do what we had to do in the closing minutes to earn the respect and recognition that we're working for? Absolutely not."
The Sharks will have 12 days off from game action, next back in the NSU Arena on Wednesday, Dec. 16, hosting Eastern University at 7:30 p.m.
