TAMPA, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team swallowed up a 22-point second-half deficit to defeat Tampa on the road on Wednesday night, 73-69.
 
After falling behind 54-32 just before the under-16 media break, the Sharks (7-9, 3-5 SSC) fed the hot hands of two freshmen, Austin Marciniak (Uniontown, Ohio) and Nikita Orap (Moscow, Russia), who combined for five 3-point goals to start the comeback.
 
After Marciniak's third, Harrison Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) buried one of his own to make it a five-point game at 63-58 with just over seven minutes left, and two minutes later, his putback cut it to three. At that point, the Shark run was 28-9.
 
Tampa (5-12, 1-7 SSC) finally scored on their next possession, snapping a scoreless stretch of over four minutes (from 9:04 to 4:47). Orap would answer, when with 3:56 left, he hit his third 3-pointer, and then at 3:17, Goodrick's second long-range bomb gave the Sharks their first lead of the game at 66-65. A Tampa free throw at 2:55 tied it, but the second didn't fall.
 
The score remained even until finally Goodrick's second-chance attempt with exactly 1:00 to go put NSU up 68-66. Tampa couldn't answer, with Goodrick pulling down a rebound of a Spartan 3-point attempt and drawing a foul. The Aussie center made both from the stripe for a four-point lead, and after another Tampa miss, made two more.
 
Though the Spartans hit a 3-pointer to halve the Sharks' six-point lead, another Shark freshman, Pat Huffine (Indianapolis, Ind.) iced it with 1-of-2 for the final margin.

"Winning always beats losing, and there are a lot of ways to do it, but this one was one of the most enjoyable and improbable that I've been a part of," said head coach Gary Tuell. "Playing our second road game in three days, playing without our leading scorer (Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.)), and turning to our four freshmen when we were down 20 ... I don't know. These guys have a lot of character and a lot of heart."    
 
Goodrick led the Sharks with 22 points, his second consecutive career high, with Casey Carroll (R-Jr., Youngstown, Ohio) adding 10. Marciniak and Orap each scored nine, with the former making his three 3's in six attempts, the latter in the minimum of three. Goodrick had seven rebounds and Marciniak six to pace the team.
 
Huffine had seven points and Dwayne Gibson Jr. (Fr., Indianap6olis, Ind.) seven assists. Those two first-year players, along with fellow newcomers Marciniak and Orap, joined Goodrick on the floor for the final 12 minutes, outscoring Tampa 33-14. All told, after the 22-point spread, NSU outscored their Spartan counterparts 41-15 to end the game, and made 10-of-17 3-pointers in the second half. The Shark bench outscored Tampa's 26-5 after the break, the team only committed three turnovers, and they won points-off-turnovers in the final 20 minutes by a 16-0 margin.

"Of course, as good as the freshmen were – and they were terrific – Harrison Goodrick was the rock who made it all possible," said Tuell. "For the second straight game, as he has done most every game since late December, he made big shots, big free throws, and owned the glass down the stretch. He has been so good for us. He's a warrior."
 
The Sharks have their first SSC opponent of the second half of the conference schedule Saturday, with Saint Leo making the trip down to Fort Lauderdale. The two squads tip at 4 p.m. from the NSU Arena.

"I knew coming into the game that this was going to be difficult," said Tuell. 'This was our fourth game in eight days and our third road game in the last four. We had a lot of tired guys coming into the game. Our guys were trying, but they just couldn't find their legs, and Tampa took advantage. They shot it great and outplayed us badly for the first 26 minutes. But the frosh Fab Four turned it around in a hurry. Austin nailed three 3's, Nikita knocked down three 3's, Harrison chipped in with two more, and Dwayne and Pat did their jobs at both ends.

"I loved the poise and composure the frosh played with all the way to the buzzer. They were ultra cool. They are the future of our program, and tonight was the first time they got extended minutes together and an opportunity to do something collectively as a group. Harrison gave them the leadership they needed, and they were fun to watch."