LAKELAND, Fla. - The Florida Southern College women's basketball team knocked off nationally-ranked Nova Southeastern University by a final score of 66-58 in Jenkins Field House on Saturday evening. The Moccasins shut out the Sharks in the first quarter and led throughout the entire game as they staved off a late comeback attempt from the Sharks.
With the win, Florida Southern improves to 12-8 overall and 8-5 in the Sunshine State Conference.
"We wanted to make a statement because the last game wasn't completely us," head coach
Megan Dzikas '12 said after the win. "We got to get back to discipline and hard work and I thought our players did that tonight."
The Mocs completely shut out the Sharks in the first quarter of play, as they recorded a new record with no points allowed in the first quarter. It was the first time in program history that Florida Southern has held their opponent completely scoreless for an entire quarter. Sophomore
Anna Denes scored the first bucket for Florida Southern to begin a massive Moccasin run that led them into the second quarter with a 13-0 lead. The Sharks shot 0-10 from the field in the quarter and could not manage a single bucket.
In the second quarter, the Sharks finally managed a bucket, but FSC continued to press and extended their lead to 18-2 three minutes into the frame. Nova Southeastern was able to find a bit of momentum and the two teams played a lot of back-and-forth basketball for the remainder of the quarter, but because of the cushion, the Mocs had built they led 34-18 going into the locker room against the RV/#24 Sharks.
NSU really began to hit their stride in the third quarter and began to reign the Mocs back in with back-to-back threes to open the second half. The Sharks continued to chip away and got within six points of the Mocs with three minutes remaining in the quarter. Sophomore
Arielle Dabu responded with consecutive buckets including a three-point shot to extend the lead back to 11. However, the Sharks crept in on the Mocs lead once again getting within four at the end of the third quarter, 47-43.
Freshman
Sydney Gomes kicked off the final quarter with a corner three for the Mocs followed by a post-move from graduate student
Ashley Shell. Once again, the Sharks were able to chip away at the Mocs' lead and brought it back within five with under five minutes remaining in the game. Dabu responded with a nice jump shot and then with just over three minutes remaining in the game, senior
Domenica Zamora found Dabu open in the corner and she nailed the three to take a 60-50 lead which was enough to put the Sharks away.
Dabu led the Mocs with 15 points and five rebounds. She was joined in double-digit scoring by Shell, Zamora, and Gomes with 14, 12, and 11, respectively. Zamora also led the Mocs in assists with five and Denes led in rebounds with eight.
UP NEXT
The Mocs travel to St. Petersburg Wednesday, February 1 to take on Eckerd College in the McArthur Center. The tip-off is set for 5:30 PM.
