Box Score MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University women's basketball team notched its 20th victory of the season and a second straight over a ranked Sunshine State Conference opponent, defeating No. 20 Florida Tech Saturday at the Clemente Center, 78-73.
Coupled with Rollins' loss on Saturday, the Sharks (20-5, 12-3) now control their own destiny. A win next week against Saint Leo would give the team the outright SSC regular season title and the conference's No. 1 seed in postseason play.
On Saturday, seniors
Danielle Robinson (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and
Jasmine Wilkins (Miami) had 19 points each to push NSU past FIT (19-5, 9-5 SSC). There were 15 lead changes and 13 ties, the last coming when Robinson's layup at 4:08 knotted it at 68-68. The next three Shark possessions had the same distributor and shooter, as
Jessica Valley (R-Jr., Lafayette, Ind.) found Wilkins each time for a successful layin, wrapping up an 8-3 run. All told, the Sharks outscored FIT to finish 12-5 for the win.
Of their 19, Robinson had 11 after the break and Wilkins had 10, on 4-of-4 shooting.
Alexis Murphy (Jr., Carlisle, Ohio) had two 3-pointers and eight points in each half, and her 16 points is a new career best, and
Valley had five of her nine assists in the second half, tying her career high with the Sharks, while also adding 10 rebounds. As they did the first go-round against FIT, the Sharks were over 50 percent shooting in this game, at 51.0 (26-of-51) Saturday. They held FIT to 39.5 percent and just a 2-of-16 mark behind the 3-point line.
Kayk Wilson paced the Panthers in scoring with 18, but was hounded defensively, shooting 7-of-24 and having three of her attempts blocked by Valley. Shequana Harris added 14 off the bench for FIT.
Again, with a win next Saturday in the team's finale at Saint Leo, the Sharks would clinch the SSC regular season title. Tipoff will be 2 p.m.
