DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The No. 17 Nova Southeastern University women's basketball team cruised to victory in their first-ever game at the ICI Center, downing Sunshine State Conference provisional member Embry-Riddle on Wednesday night, 75-52.
 
The Sharks (21-4) combined offense and defense in the comfortable win. They forced 20 turnovers by the homestanding Eagles (6-17) and had nine steals, while placing four in double digits on a 51-percent shooting night. Taylor Buie (R-Jr., Puyallup, Wash.) buried 5-of-7 from 3-point range towards a game-high 19 points, while Kayla Wright (Jr., Lauderhill, Fla.) made her first six shots and in total went 7-of-10 among 16 points, to go along with a team-best seven rebounds. She also had three steals.
 
Molly Blomer (Sr., West Chester, Ohio) was next, with a cool dozen points including three 3-pointers, and Octavia Wilson (Jr., Nicholasville, Ky.) matched her NSU career best with 11, making all five of her free throw attempts and adding three assists and two rebounds.
 
Of the Sharks' 25 made field goals, they connected on 23 assists, including seven by Ida Krogh (R-Sr., Aarhus, Denmark) – her high since joining the program, against just one turnover – and six from Monaye Merritt (R-Sr., Philadelphia, Pa.). That duo was next in the scoring column: six by Merritt and four by Krogh, while Merritt notched four steals and Krogh five rebounds. Also adding four points in her Shark debut was Christen Prasse (So., Naperville, Ill.), making a layin and two free throws in five minutes of action. She contributed her first career NSU rebound, assist and steal as well.
 
The Shark defense hounded ERAU's leading scorer, Sabrina Whiting (who had 27 in the teams' previous meeting) to just five points on 2-of-16 shooting. It was her second-lowest output of the season. Kalah Martin was the team leader for the Eagles on Wednesday with 10.
 
NSU will attempt to clinch both the outright SSC regular season title as well as officially nab the conference's No. 1 seed next time out, on Saturday. Eckerd will come into the NSU Arena for a 2 p.m. tipoff, not only for a crucial conference matchup, but also for Senior Day. The Sharks will honor Blomer, Krogh, Merritt and Alexis Murphy (Carlisle, Ohio) in the opener of the women's and men's doubleheader.

Also on Wednesday, the first official NCAA region rankings of this season were released. The Sharks are currently listed as No. 3 in the South, behind Union and Benedict. The full Top 10 can be found HERE.