Box Score LAKELAND, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's basketball team was done in by a big second half run by the No. 2 Florida Southern Mocs and were topped 82-58 on Saturday at the Jenkins Field House.
The Sharks (9-11, 5-6 SSC) trailed by just eight, 54-46, with 9:47 left. From then until the 3:50 mark, they were held to just a
Justin Jeangerard (Sr., Weaverville, Calif.) 3-pointer while FSC (21-1, 9-1 SSC) scored 21 points, the first eight (and 13 overall) coming from All-American Kevin Capers.
It had been an even closer first half, with the largest lead of only seven. At that point,
Harrison Goodrick (So., Sydney, Australia) had a twin line of seven points and seven rebounds, and he would end up just shy of a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
"I thought we did a great job in the first half, defending and rebounding," said NSU head coach Gary Tuell. "Our effort was superb; our focus and concentration were superb. We only had one problem: we had to be playing with a lopsided ball because that thing wouldn't go in the hole. We couldn't make layups, free throws or 3-pointers. But we were six down at the half and right where we wanted to be. And I thought sooner or later we'd start knocking down shots. "We were still only six down at around the 10:00 mark, but our offense wasn't any better. We continued to struggle, and in fact, we were worse in the second half. It was just one of those nights. But a lot of that has to do with the Florida Southern defense. They have tremendous athletes, they pressure you all over the floor for 40 minutes, and when they're allowed to play with their hands on you and allowed to bump and grind the way they did tonight, it's almost impossible for a team like ours to execute well enough to win. Eventually, they just wear you down, or maybe a better term is, they beat you down."Maurice Fuller (Sr., Westfield, Ind.) led the Sharks with 12 points, which included 4-of-6 shooting from behind the arc. Alongside Goodrick,
Troy Spears (Fr., Martinsville, Ind.) also posted nine points, while
Chris Page (Jr., Planfield, Ind.) scored seven.
Capers led all scorers with 27 points, 19 coming after the break, pulled down nine rebounds and had four assists. Dominique Williams had 12 points, and Bubby Johnson had 10 points and 13 rebounds.
"I remember several years ago coaching at Louisville and playing against Patrick Ewing's Georgetown teams," said Tuell. "Florida Southern is very similar to those teams with their full-court pressure, with their athleticism and with the way they just harass you and manhandle you for 40 minutes. We're just not capable of playing that kind of game." The Mocs shot 46.3 percent from the field overall, but that number climbed 54.8 percent after the break, which included a 52.9 percent mark from behind the arc (9-of-17). The Sharks were at 36.4 percent overall, and were outrebounded by FSC Saturday night, 46-31.
"From the 10 to five-minute mark, we were just fatigued and we never got anything going offensively," said Tuell. "When we finally hit the wall on the defensive end, they just slammed the door on us. Hats off to Linc Darner, he's done a great job again of coaching this team, and they've got terrific guys like Tyler Kelly and Kevin Capers and Stephen battle, those are really good kids that compete their butts off. I thought we got great effort from Harrison (Goodrick) and Brian Cahill (Sr., Arlington, Va.). I thought Troy Spears did a good job as a freshman playing in a game like this. Mo Fuller gave us a good offensive punch in the 2nd half, what offensive punch we got in the half we got from Mo, but no one stepped up to help him. Now it's on to Lynn. It's death, famine and pestilence for us, and we've got to handle to handle famine better than we handled death."That matchup, another tough test against the Fighting Knights (15-5, 8-3 SSC), is on Wednesday night. The tipoff from the NSU Arena will be at 7:30 following the women's game.
