ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Eckerd's Trevon Young hit a scoop shot in the lane with 3.5 seconds remaining in regulation as the Tritons edged Nova Southeastern 68-66 in a back-and-forth affair Wednesday night in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Nikita Orap calmly drained a pair of free throws in the final 15 seconds to knot up the ball game, but the Sharks were unable to come up with one more stop despite a stifling defensive effort that held Eckerd 16 points below its season average.
Even with leading scorer and rebounder Harrison Goodrick sidelined for Wednesday's contest, Nova Southeastern pushed Eckerd to the brink after falling behind by as many as 11 in the first half. Gerard Tarin pieced together his best performance as a Shark by pouring in a season-high 25 points and 10 rebounds. Troy Spears added 13 points, while Nikita Orap and Dwayne Gibson chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively, to round out the Sharks' four players in double-figures.
"We've had to take days off because we haven't had enough guys to practice lately," said head coach Gary Tuell. "I'm so proud of our guys, what a valiant effort by this team. I just don't know if they can play any harder You come to Eckerd and get beat by two here without your starting center, without your starting three-man, with your point guard a bit nicked up, and still played hard enough to win. All of our guys battled their behinds off tonight."
The Sharks fell behind by double-digits midway through the first half following one of Kevin Walsh's five three-pointers in the contest. Just as it appeared the game may get away from the Sharks early, though, Tarin picked up the slack and willed the team back to within striking distance. The junior registered 11 of his 15 first-half points in the final 6:36 as Nova Southeastern entered the break all of the sudden down just 34-32.
"Gerard was a warrior tonight," said Tuell. "That's the guy we've been looking for, and needed that with Harrison out. He put the team on his shoulders and kept attacking those guys the whole game."
A runner by Orap evened up the game on the first possession of the second half before Spears drilled a trey the next time down the floor to put the Sharks in front 37-34, giving them their first lead since 2-0.
Both sides then traded buckets for much of the half until Eckerd's Shane Phillips converted his first points of the night to help the Tritons grab the largest cushion for either side in the final 20 minutes, up 60-54 with 5:07 to play.
Nova Southeastern would respond once again, though, and found itself tied up at 64-64 with the Tritons following a spinning drive by Spears at the 2:02 mark. However, the Sharks failed to convert one of their final four field goal attempts in the closing moments, and now drop to 2-7 in the league and 6-11 overall.
Following the setback, NSU will return home to face off against Barry this Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. For complete coverage of the action, log onto NSUSharks.com or follow the Sharks on Twitter @NSU_MBasketball.
