FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team held off Florida Tech Wednesday to sweep the season series, as a late Casey Carroll 3-pointer gave the Sharks the home win, 79-77.
 
The Sharks (9-11, 4-7 SSC) came out on all cylinders after the halftime break, using a 15-3 run to start the second to transform a four-point deficit into an eight-point lead. The Panthers (11-11, 3-8 SSC) weren't deterred, clawing back for the game's only tie and a subsequent short lead on two free throws, 77-76 with 52.5 seconds left. Though the Sharks had their last three shots prior, Carroll (R-Jr., Youngstown, Ohio) came through with 22.7 seconds left with an open look from the left wing for the winning shot.
 
The Sharks held off a Panther miss, with Harrison Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) corralling his 12th rebound with just 3.8 seconds left. FIT was well under the foul limit, but couldn't catch up to the blazing fast Mike Chalas (Sr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.), who eluded everyone on the floor to dribbled out the clock for the victory.

"I'm so happy for Casey Carroll," said head coach Gary Tuell. "After going through back surgery and sitting out a year, then going through all the things he has to do in therapy every day just for the opportunity to play, you just root for him and hope good things happen for him. We've been able to rest him a lot over the last seven days and I thought he was great tonight. He had good energy, rebounded, passed it, got to the rim and when the game was on the line he delivered the biggest shot of the night to give us the victory. When Casey is healthy and feeling well he's a tough cover for other teams because he can beat you inside and out."
 
Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) was the game's high scorer with 29 points, while Goodrick continued to be a double-double machine, scoring 18 points and grabbing those dozen rebounds. It was his fourth straight and fifth in eight games. Carroll was the third Shark in double digits in points, as his game-winner gave him 11.

"Harrison gave us another great game on the boards and contributed 18 points," said Tuell. "He did a nice job covering Corbin Jackson, with a little help from his friends on defense, and we were able to contain Corbin. I love Jackson. He's a special young man and a great player and always the focal point of our defense when we play Tech. But after what Majors and Anderson did to us tonight we might have to rethink how we play them if we get to see them again.

"Chris Page had a terrific first half and did some great things for us in the second half. He was moving the ball really well. It would have helped us if some of the guys had made shots off Chris' passes early, but we struggled to shoot the three all night. In the first half Chris had 16 points on only eight shots. In the second half he had 13 points on 12 shots, which was not quite the same productivity he gave us the first 20 minutes. But he's still learning and he's growing. Certainly we don't win this game without him. Not many guys in this league can give you 29 points." 

The Sharks survived the FIT backcourt duo of Jordan Majors and Patrick Anderson, with 27 and 26 points, respectively. They combined to make 11 of the Panthers' 14 3-pointers.

"We were very fortunate to get out of this game with a win," said Tuell. "We never found a way to stop or even slow down Patrick Anderson and Jordan Majors, who were just terrific all night for Tech. If we pressured them they found a way to get by us and if we laid off them they drained threes. Even when we thought we had them stopped, one of them would throw something in at the shot clock. They hurt us, but they didn't kill us. We did enough good things to find a way to hang on down the stretch."
 
NSU was lights-out to the tune of 55.9 percent shooting in the second half, 19-of-34, lifting their total game percentage to 49.3. Goodrick was 8-of-14 (6-of-8 after the break) and Carroll made 3-of-4 in the second half towards a 5-of-8 total. Dwayne Gibson, Jr. (Fr., Indianapolis, Ind.) scored nine points total, making all three of his shots in the third and fourth, and Nick Pendergast (Sr., Bridgewater, Conn.) was 2-of-3 in that same timeframe for all five of his points.

"Dwayne Gibson was good off the bench, Nick Pendergast did a lot of good things for us and I thought Jordan Stookey (So., Warsaw, Ind.) really did a nice job filling in at the point," said Tuell. "Jordan is such a crafty, intelligent player. His effort in practice this week has been great and if he keeps it up his playing time will increase because he can do some things on the floor that not many guys on our team can do. 
 
"But at the end of the day, the night belonged to Casey Carroll. Despite all the good things we got from other guys, at least on the offensive end, Casey was just terrific at both ends of the floor and gave us the big shot for the win in the final minute. I think everybody on the team enjoyed that moment for Casey because we all know what he goes through every day and what he has been through just to be a part of this team."

Saturday afternoon in Winter Park, Florida, is the day and site of the Sharks' next game, at Rollins. The Tars (15-6, 7-3 SSC) handed No. 16 Eckerd their first conference loss of the season on Wednesday, 82-79 on the Tritons' home floor, in overtime. NSU and RC will begin following the completion of Saturday's women's game at approximately 4 p.m.