FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – For the second game in a row, the Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team staged a late comeback that fell just short, tying it up with 46 seconds left, but Florida Southern scored the last five to win 84-79 Saturday night at the NSU Arena.
 
The Sharks (5-9, 1-5 SSC) trailed the Mocs (8-9, 4-3 SSC) by 10, 71-61, with only 5:38 left in the game, but went on a 9-2 run to pull with three at 3:56. Harrison Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) ended the stretch by making his third 3-pointer of the game (after having made only one in the previous 13 games combined to start the year), making the score 73-70.
 
Twice more, the Mocs pushed back ahead by five, but trailing 77-72, the Sharks scored five straight of their own. Mike Chalas (Sr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.) hit a crucial stepback 3-pointer off a screen, and after an immediate Dwayne Gibson Jr. (Fr., Indianapolis, Ind.) steal, Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) outraced everyone to the rim for a game-tying layup with 1:10 left.
 
FSC's Dylan Travis drew a foul on the other end, making two free throws, the latter his ninth in as many attempts. Again, the Sharks drew even, this time on two Goodrick free throws, making it 79-all. The Mocs worked the ball around, and Sheldon Zablotny canned his fifth 3-pointer to push them back ahead. A 3-point attempt to tie on the Sharks' end drew contact but no foul, and went out of bounds off NSU, and two more Moc free throws would clinch the win.
 
Goodrick matched his season high with 19 points, was just a rebound shy of his second straight double-double, and surpassed his career best with five assists. His three 3-pointers were also the most in this career, coming in just three attempts, and he was 6-of-10 overall from the field. Gibson had 12 of his career-best matching 16 points in the second half and came up with six rebounds, while Page had 14 points and six rebounds as well.
 
Also in double digits was Casey Carroll (R-Jr., Youngstown, Ohio) off the bench, having another flawless performance shooting-wise as he did earlier in the season against Embry-Riddle. Saturday, he was 4-of-4 from the field, making his only 3-pointer, as well as both of his free throws. His 11 points came in just 14 minutes of playing time. Troy Spears (So., Martinsville, Ind.) notched eight points while BJ Edwards (So., Fort Myers, Fla.) added six.
 
"Dwayne Gibson, Harrison Goodrick, BJ Edwards, and Casey Carroll were terrific and a lot of others really did a great job contributing," said head coach Gary Tuell. "We will learn a lot from this game and move forward. We're at Florida Tech Monday, at Tampa Wednesday and home against Saint Leo Saturday, so with four games in eight days we don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves or worry about things we can't control. We just have to keep moving forward."
 
Though the Sharks were consistent in their shooting percentages (43.8 before the half and 44.1 after) and made 11 3-pointers in the game, they fell prey to 15 3's by their opponents, as well as an 11-of-11 overall free throw shooting mark by the Mocs.
 
"Offensively, we're struggling to find a rhythm," said Tuell. "We're working on some different things, tinkering with different things, and I think that's disrupted our offensive flow. But in a week or so, we'll have a much better grasp of what we're doing and we'll starting executing better. It's not advantageous at the moment, but it's necessary for us to be as good as we can be later in the year. At some point this team is going to start winning all these close games that we're losing now. At some point we're going to turn this thing; we are right there. I've told our guys over and over to hang in there, stay positive. Our young guys are getting better and our team is improving. Nobody in this league has hurt our feelings. We feel we can play with everyone and beat anyone, and eventually we'll start doing it. 
 
"Every loss has been tight, most have come down to the last couple of possessions. Our guys are giving themselves a chance to win, but we're not finishing the deal because young players panic or veteran players make poor decisions with the ball. And we've been the recipient of some good opponents stepping up in the final minute to nail big-time threes, whether it was Undra Mitchem at Barry or Sheldon Zablotny from Florida Southern or Joey Galvis at Rollins. Somebody always seems to put a dagger in our hearts in the final minute with a three, and we've done a pretty good job of defending most of those shots. By the same token, we can't catch a break. If we had gotten a few more stops or made a couple more free throws none of that would have mattered, that's part of the game. The tide will shift; things will turn for us. We just have to keep grinding."
 
Travis' 26 points paced FSU, and Zablotny had 23. Of the Mocs' 15 made 3's, four came in the first 3:29 for all 12 of their points, two more came two minutes later, and they made seven of their first 10 attempts to build an early 25-10 lead (the biggest of the game).
 
"Hats off to Florida Southern," said Tuell. "They came out on fire and forced us out of our zone defense, and that's the first time this year a team has done that. They played well, they made some big-time shots down the stretch and they didn't miss a free throw. Those are things you expect from the defending national champions. Dominique Williams, Dylan Travis and Michael Volovic, along with Tyler Ross and Stephen Turner, were huge contributors to Southern's national championship team a year ago. Dom, Dylan and Michael all played starter's minutes and were responsible for a number of their wins, so this team is not chopped liver. They've beaten some very good teams and they're going to win a lot more. 
 
"On the plus side for us, we played 32 minutes of man defense, which is probably 31 minutes more than we've played all year. And for the most part I thought our guys did a great job defending. We got beat on some straight line drives and we let – or somebody let – Dylan Travis get to the free throw line too many times, but overall our effort and energy was terrific at the defensive end."
 
As Tuell alluded to, the Sharks have three games this upcoming week, in six days, starting with Florida Tech on the road Monday afternoon. Game time from Melbourne is 2 p.m.