FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Trailing by eight points late in the third quarter, Hailey Conley followed the mantra that "shooters shoot" by shaking off an early slump to put the Nova Southeastern women's basketball team on her back, scoring 21 of her career-high 30 points in the final 12 minutes of the Sharks' 70-63 win over the Findlay Oilers at the Rick Case Arena on Saturday afternoon.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
FINAL: W, 70-63
RECORDS: Nova Southeastern Sharks (6-4), Findlay Oilers (6-7)
LOCATION: Rick Case Arena | Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
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HOW IT HAPPENED:

1ST QUARTER | Much like in Friday's victory over Ohio Dominican, the Sharks took an early one-point lead, this time on a 3-pointer by Skyla Osceola, before allowing their opponent to build up a lead. The Oilers scored seven in a row in just 50 seconds for an early 9-3 lead. The Sharks got back within one on a layup by Maria Bardeeva and a traditional 3-point play from Jordan Tully, but Findlay responded with another 7-0 run to double up the home team, 16-8, before finishing off the quarter with an unnatural 3-point play – one of two free throws, followed by an offensive rebound and a layup – with a 19-12 lead.

2ND QUARTER | The Sharks cut the deficit to four at two separate points in the early part of the second period, but were unable to get closer than that, as the Oilers responded both times, getting the lead to 10 at 34-24. Despite Findlay missing their final six shots of the half, with their last field goal coming just after the halfway point, the Sharks turned the ball over five times in under two and a half minutes, contributing to eight consecutive empty possessions and resulting them only cutting into the margin with a 3-pointer by Makenna Drabick.

3RD QUARTER | The teams traded buckets for the majority of the second half, with the Oilers' advantage oscillating back and forth between five and eight points, until Conley ended the frame with a pair of 3-pointers, giving her three in the period and five in the game, a sign of things to come in a game that entered the final stanza with Sharks down just one basket, 44-42.

4TH QUARTER | After Findlay sank a pair of free throws to kick off the quarter, Conley bookended a momentum shift with two more from downtown, using a 10-0 run to turn a four-point deficit into a 52-46 edge. Despite leading for just 92 seconds in the first, the Sharks stayed firmly in front for the rest of the game, keeping the Oilers at bay every time they got within one possession with points of their own, building their own 10-point lead at 65-55 with just 1:36 left. Conley made all four of her free throws down the stretch to ice the game, sending the Sharks into 2020 with a perfect 4-0 December record.

INSIDE THE STATS:

• Conley's four at the stripe in the final minute gave her a new career-high 30 points, topping the 24 she scored just one week ago against Rollins. Adding seven rebounds, two assists and two steals to her line of 9-of-21 from the field and 8-for-18 from deep, Conley also tied her career-best mark for field goals made (from last year's season opener against Delta State) and set a new one for 3-pointers made.
• Tully was second on the team with 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting, filling out her stat sheet with five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a career-high four blocks.
• Maria Bardeeva was the third and final Shark in double figures, with 10 points on a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor.
• Fresh off her game-winner to defeat Ohio Dominican just one day prior, first-year transfer Makenna Drabick set new season highs in points (7), rebounds (10), steals (2) and minutes (21)
• Janiffer Rodriguez, with five assists, led the team for the second game in a row, totaling 14 in 62 minutes this weekend, after entering with just seven in 202 minutes across 25 career games as a Shark.
• Despite starting the game shooting an ice-cold 25% (4-of-16) from the field and 10% (1-for-10) from 3-point range, the Sharks quickly began to heat up, improving to 48.7% and 40.9%, respectively, for the rest of the game.
• The Oilers, on the other hand, made two of their first three from distance in the first quarter, but then missed their next six, not hitting another until the game's waning seconds.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:

• Conley half of her 30 points in the fourth quarter, when shot made all four of her field goal attempts, including a trio of 3-pointers, and 24 total in the second half, despite coming up empty on four first-quarter tries. Her 18 3-point attempts broke the all-time program record previously held by Meixandra Porter, who took 16 in a game against Shaw on Dec. 15, 2012, and her 21 field goal attempts the most since Megan Piggott also scored 30 on 11-of-21 in a victory over Lynn on Dec. 10, 2016. She is also just the fourth player in history to make eight or more threes in a game, just one short of the record set by Porter in the 2012-13 season opener against Palm Beach Atlantic on Nov. 9 and tied just last season by Christen Prasse in her record-setting 39-point performance in the South Regional Semifinal defeat of West Florida.
• Conley is just the tenth player to reach 30 points in a game, joining the aforementioned Porter, Piggott, and Prasse, as well as former teammates Alison Hughes and Kayla Wright, currently the team's Director of Player Development, and other lumniaries Marvelou Washington and Missy Guadagnino and NSU Athletics Hall of Famers Jessica Pate (inducted in 2010) and Stephanie Sarosi (2016).
• Tully's four blocks are the most in a game since Claire McMahon's pair of five-block efforts in the first three games of last season, extending her streak of multi-block games to four. Meanwhile, McMahon, with three of her own, extending her personal streak to seven consecutive games with a block.
• As a team, the Sharks' 11 blocks are their most in a game since Feb. 9, 2011.

UP NEXT:
Concluding their regular season non-conference slate with a 4-3 record, the Sharks will return to action following the winter break, playing their first of 17 straight Sunshine State Conference opponents when they host the Eckerd Tritons in the Rick Case Arena on Thursday, January 2 at 5:30 p.m.

SHARKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
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