Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team (5-5, 1-1 SSC) came back from 19 points down on the road Saturday but could not earn the victory over the Eckerd Tritons (8-3, 2-0 SSC), falling 73-70.
"This was one of those games where neither team probably comes away very happy," said head coach
Gary Tuell. "Certainly the coaches won't be happy. On the one hand, Eckerd had a 19 point lead and we were able to come back and take a lead ourselves. I know that can't please Tom Ryan and his staff. On the other hand we fought back and showed tremendous character and heart, but we made too many mental mistakes in the last five minutes to finish the deal. Coach Kiffin and I feel like we let a victory get away. My guess is both teams will be watching a lot of negative film edits on Monday. "
Chris Page (Jr., Plainfield, Ind.) was the leading scorer for NSU Saturday with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting. He also tallied three assists and four rebounds.
Harrison Goodrick (So., Sydney, Australia) recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Justin Jeangerard (Sr., Weaverville, Calif.) and
Troy Spears (Fr., Martinsville, Ind.) also posted 11 points apiece.
"Despite our disappointment, I told our guys afterwards I was extremely proud of the way they battled on the glass against superior athletes," stated Tuell. "I thought our entire team showed a lot of heart with how they competed in the paint. As good as Ray Darnell, Theo Brunner and Trevon Young are, they played a combined 74 minutes, and none of them were able to reach double figures. We have so much respect for their post players, we forced them to play against two, three, sometimes four people all night. Obviously that hurt us on the perimeter, especially in the first half. But we made adjustments at halftime that I thought helped us. Kevin Walsh had four 3's and 16 points in the first half, he was having a party out there against our defense. In the second half, we limited him to one 2-point field goal and just two points. But EJ Moody was good for them, as was Jerrick Stevenson. Walsh was great in the first half, and I thought Keshawn Ingram played well for a freshman."
The script was flipped at the start of the game Saturday, with the bigger team bombing 3-pointers and the Sharks crashing the offensive glass. Although the Sharks had four offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes, the Tritons looked to run away with the game by nailing six of its first eight 3-pointers. The Tritons jumped out to a 36-17 lead within the first 14 minutes of the game, their largest of the day.
After making only three of their first 11 3-point attempts, a comeback was sparked by a 3-pointer from Page with 6:19 left in the first period. The dagger began a 16-6 run that led into halftime, cutting NSU's deficit down to nine points at the break.
NSU held the momentum heading into the second half and chipped away at the home team's lead. Instead of shooting their way back into the contest, NSU climbed back in the game with several defensive stops. The Sharks forced Eckerd to shoot 9-for-23 in the second half and 3-for-12 from downtown.
At one point, Eckerd looked to have stabilized their lead and were up 12 with 16:53 remaining. NSU erased that lead by keeping the Tritons from converting a field goal for over nine minutes. With 9:04 remaining in the game, Goodrick made a turnaround layup to tie at 57-57. After the layup, NSU saw its own offense struggle, going just under four minutes without a field goal. During the cold spell, Eckerd would only go up by four, allowing the Sharks to take the lead on five unanswered points.
With 3:03 remaining,
Brian Cahill (Sr., Arlington, Va.) scored on a layup to give the Sharks a 68-65 lead, their largest of the game. However, it would be NSU's final field goal of the game. The home team scored three-straight unanswered field goals to reestablish their multiple possession lead. Down by four with 10 seconds left, Page was fouled on a 3-point attempt and converted the first two attempts. On an immediate foul, Eckerd went 1-for-2 at the line. The missed free throw gave NSU a chance to tie with just under six seconds left. The Sharks were able to move the ball past the half court line in time, but a long 3-point attempt was no good.
In the end, NSU shot 40 percent (22-for-55) overall and 33 percent (11-for-33) from 3-point range. NSU also won the hustle stats, outrebounding Eckerd, 37-28, and taking the turnover battle, 12-14. However, Eckerd won the game on the back of its hot start and finished the day with a 51.1 percent field goal mark (24-for-47) and 12 made 3-pointers.
"As happens so often when you go on the road, How you start a game was critical," Tuell said. "Fir the first 15 minutes, Eckerd had their way with us. And while they were playing well, I thought a lot of that was our lack of effort and energy. Once we started to compete harder and recognize better on defense, we were able to give ourselves a chance to win. I told the guys before the game, games are not won at home and not won on the road. Games are won in the paint, on the glass and at the foul line. I thought our interior defense was very good, we won the rebound battle and we made two more free throws. We did the things we wanted to do to win. In the last two minutes, we gave up two big offensive rebounds, a back-door layup and failed to execute as well as we are capable of on the offensive game. As it turned out, that was pretty much the difference in the game.
"Harrison Goodrick had a terrific game for us. He had a double-double and was huge on the defensive end. For a freshman, I was really pleased with Troy Spears. He gave us some solid minutes and a little scoring punch.
Mike Chalas (Jr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.) also played well as the game went on, and continues to improve. I thought
Stian Berg (Sr., Baerum, Norway) was very good, even though his stats were modest. I thought it was one of Stian's better games this year."
NSU will continue road play on Wednesday against the Lynn Fighting Knights at 7:30 p.m. in Boca Raton, Fla.
"We still don't share the ball as well as we did a year ago, and our 3-point shooting, while average for most teams, is atrocious for us. We can play a lot better than this. I'm sure our players feel the same way. Lynn will be a formidable test. The way they pressure on defense and the way they rebound the basketball is unlike most teams you play against. When you play Lynn you should get points for completing passes. Nobody in the country takes the 3-point shot away from you better than Lynn, so I'm not sure where we are going to score. We're not discouraged, we're just disappointed because we did enough good things to win. We'll try to bounce back Wednesday with a better effort for 40 minutes. And hopefully not make some mistakes we made tonight."
