Mocs Nearly Knock Off #3 Sharks

LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern men's basketball team came up just short Saturday night inside Streamline Sale Arena at the George W. Jenkins Field House versus the No. 3 Nova Southeastern Sharks. The Moccasins nearly made a second-half comeback on their home floor but the Sharks relentless pressure defense and timely scoring proved to be the difference. NSU hung on for an 83-73 victory.

Head Coach Mike Donnelly expressed, "It was a hard-fought game. Really proud of our effort, especially in the second half and that's all we ask of the guys."
 
The win moved the Sharks to 15-0 overall including 9-0 in league action. The Mocs fell to 6-11 overall and 3-6 in conference play.
 
Graduate student Tarik Mckelphin led the offensive attack for the Mocs as he poured in season-high 26 points including draining 6-of-9 from downtown. The Plant City, Fla. native finished 8-of-18 from the field and 4-for-6 at the charity stripe. He added seven rebounds, a team-high three blocks, and two assists to his line. Redshirt junior E.J. Dambreville exploded in the second half scoring 14 of his 18 points in the second period. He went 7-of-13 from the field while knocking down four triples on 10 attempts. He added nine rebounds, four assists, and a team-high four steals to his effort.
 
Redshirt junior Xavier Rhodes was the only other Moc in double-figures as he chipped in 10 points and five rebounds. He also handed out a team-high five assists in the loss.
 
Sekou Sylla led the third-ranked Sharks with a game-high 28 points. He was 11-of-18 from the floor and knocked down all six of his free throws. He also had a game-high 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double. Two other Sharks reached double-figures as the Mocs held the Sharks 16 points under their season scoring average of 99.4 points per game.
 
"Nova Southeastern is a very good team, tough team to play against with their style of play," said Donnelly. "We struggled in the first half I was happy with how we responded on both sides of the ball with confidence and aggressiveness in the second half; it brought us back to a two-point game with four minutes to play. We just couldn't get over the hump tonight, but I thought we fought really hard."
 
Florida Southern jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening minutes of the contest as the Sharks took a bit to get started. The Mocs would hold the lead until the 15:05 mark of the period as an Eddie Puisis jumper gave the Sharks their first lead of the night 13-12. The opening period would remain close until a 10-2 run from the Sharks opened up a 40-28 advantage for the visitors. The Mocs would continue to battle eventually entering the locker room trailing 48-34.
 
The Mocs cut the deficit to just three points just over five minutes into the second half in part thanks to three 3-pointers from Dambreville during the stretch. The Sharks again pulled away but the Mocs would not go down easy as they made another surge cutting the lead to 72-70 with 4:22 left. Mckelphin delivered the 3-pointer to cut the deficit to just two points. The Sharks responded by out-scoring the Mocs 11-3 over the final four minutes to maintain their perfect record.
 
Up Next
Florida Southern will hit the road for a Sunshine State Conference contest at the University of Tampa Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
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