FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Florida Southern's Tyler Ross netted a game-high 31 points, while Troy Spears' last-second, half-court heave missed off the mark as the Moccasins upended Nova Southeastern 77-74 in a Sunshine State Conference contest at NSU Arena Saturday evening.

Ross carried Florida Southern throughout the ball game by finishing 12-of-15 from the floor, including 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, but left the door open for Nova Southeastern after failing to convert consecutive free throws with just three seconds remaining in regulation. Spears corralled the rebound off the second miss, however, was unable to send the ball game into overtime despite a career-high 24-points in the effort.

The junior connected on 7-of-15 shot attempts in the loss to go along with five rebounds and three assists, while Dwayne Gibson and Gerard Tarin each finished with double-doubles.

Spears opened the scoring Saturday with one of his four three-pointers to give the Sharks an early 3-0 advantage. Florida Southern quickly grabbed control, though, and eventually built its cushion to as large as 12 in the first half following a pair of free throws by Jack Rauch.

In search of some sort of momentum, Nova Southeastern luckily found some down the stretch of the opening half. With seven points by way of Spears, the Sharks reeled off a needed 15-6 run over the final six minutes to close the gap to 39-36 heading into intermission.

Still within striking distance at the start of the second half, Nikita Orap finally gave Nova Southeastern a 49-48 lead - its first since the opening moments - after taking a feed from Gibson and connecting from downtown.

The Sharks would soon relinquish that margin and fall behind by six, but another Spears triple would eventually draw them back even with 4:07 to play. Gibson and Florida Southern's Michael Volovic would then trade three-pointers until the Mocs climbed back on top by five with 59 seconds remaining.

Harrison Goodrick did everything in his will to keep the Sharks in the ball game, closing the gap back to two by hammering home a left-handed slam plus the foul. Similar to Wednesday's contest, though, Nova Southeastern couldn't strike gold when it needed to most.  

Following their fourth straight loss, the Sharks now sit at 1-6 in the SSC and 4-10 overall. The win for Florida Southern, meanwhile, bumps the Mocs to 3-4 in the league and 5-10 on the year.

The Sharks will look to return to the win column next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET when they welcome SSC foe Rollins to NSU Arena. For complete coverage of the action, follow along on Twitter at @NSU_MBasketball and by clicking on the provided links on the schedule page.