LIVE STREAMING | LIVE STATS FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 14 Nova Southeastern University women's basketball team will have the opportunity to even the score against the only team to defeat them in conference play this season, on their home floor this upcoming Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. against the Tampa Spartans.
The Sharks (19-3, 11-1 SSC) won their first seven games against Sunshine State Conference opponents, but were denied a clean sweep of the first go-round through league play on Jan. 20 in Tampa. Now, just three weeks later, they will play host to the Spartans (13-9, 6-5 SSC), who have turned their season around after an 0-5 start in the conference, now sitting in fifth place and just a game in the loss column out of third.
Since the loss, NSU has won four straight SSC games to open up a two-game lead over Florida Tech and three over Florida Southern. Barry is a half-game back of them at 7-4 and Tampa is 6-5. The win over NSU by the Spartans has been part of a stretch where they have won seven of nine overall, after beginning the year 6-7.
Juliana Cavallaro has been the Spartans' leading scorer this season at 13.9 per game, and had 18 in the earlier win. Angela Alvarez came off the bench for 12 points and 12 rebounds. UT held the Sharks without a double-digit scorer for the first time in nearly six years and to a season-low in points.
Saturday saw both teams take victories. The Sharks held off Rollins in overtime, 70-64, with
Monaye Merritt (R-Sr., Philadelphia, Pa.) scoring 18 and
Kayla Wright (Jr., Lauderhill, Fla.) 17. With 13 apiece, and scoring all 12 of the team's points in OT, were
Taylor Buie (R-Jr., Puyallup, Wash.) and
Ida Krogh (R-Sr., Aarhus, Denmark). Those four along with
Molly Blomer (Sr., West Chester, Ohio) are all between eight and 15.5 points per game on the season: Wright at that top number, then Buie (13.7), Merritt (9.9), Blomer (9.1) and Krogh (8.1).
Meanwhile, at home, Tampa topped Eckerd, 77-63 behind five in double digits, with Elena de Alfredo highest at 20. Four Spartans played all 40 minutes in the game.
Game time is 5:30 p.m. from the NSU Arena on Wednesday.
