Women's Basketball Survives Close Call to Remain Perfect In Conference Play

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  – The University of Tampa women's basketball team traveled to Fort Lauderdale to take on the Nova Southeastern Sharks for a Sunshine State Conference matchup. 

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: Tampa 67, Nova Southeastern 66 
Records: University of Tampa Spartans (14-3, 11-0 SSC), Nova Southeastern University Sharks (10-8, 6-5 SSC)
Location: Rick Case Arena | Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
All-time Series: Tampa leads the all-time series with the Nova Sharks with a 30-16 mark. With today's win, the conference has improved to 21-11.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

1st Quarter | Kris Nelson was the first player on the board with a three-pointer which gave Tampa a nice start. The Spartans came out strong on the defensive end and held Nova to a 22 percent field-goal percentage in the first half of the quarter. On the offensive end, Tampa jumped out to a 10-0 scoring run and was shooting an exciting 90 percent from the field with three minutes still remaining. Everything going right for the Spartans as four out of the five starters had a minimum of three points. Nelson, Dori Nagy, and LaShayla Wright-Ponder each had eight points. || Tampa 27, Nova 17

2nd Quarter | The dynamic-duo, Nagy and Wright-Ponder, started the second quarter off blazing. Wright-Ponder drained her first three-pointer of the season and increased the Spartans lead to 12. Despite the four turnovers Tampa committed in the quarter, they continued their hot shooting. Late in the half, Julia Ingram received her first points of the game by knocking down a three from the wing. This had the Spartans shooting 4-4 from the outside. The first half ended with Tampa shooting 77 percent and Wright-Ponder had 12 points and shooting 100 percent. Nagy finished the half with 18 points and seven rebounds. 28 of Tampa's points came from inside the paint in the first half, as they shot 14-14. || Tampa 46, Nova 33

3rd Quarter | Maintaining defensive pressure into the second half, the Spartans continued to limit the Sharks shooting. Neither team was putting up many shots, but Tampa stayed their course as they shot 50 percent in the quarter shooting 4 of 8. Only two Spartans scored this quarter, Aliyah Abney and Nagy. Nova picked up their defensive pace as they forced eight turnovers to be committed by Tampa. This allowed the Sharks to go on an 8-0 run to close the third quarter.  || Tampa 56, Nova 47

4th Quarter |The Spartans did a fantastic job crashing the broads and limited the Sharks to less than 10 rebounds when entering the final quarter. Nova kept their run motivation from the previous quarter and went on another 8-0 scoring run as they cut Tampa's huge lead to only three. Melijah Sullivan ended that run with a coast to coast fast-break layup. The two teams started trading baskets as both teams were shooting around 60 percent late in the game. At the final minute mark, Tampa had only a two-point lead. The Sharks had a trip to the free-throw line, but they only went 1 for 2. The Spartans did not execute on the offensive end, but defensively they held Nova one point short. || Tampa 67, Nova 66

INSIDE THE STATS:

• Dori Nagy was the leading scorer with 28 points and nine rebounds.
• LaShayla Wright-Ponder was the second-leading scorer with 12 points, shooting 5-6.
• Kris Nelson also scored in double-digit figures with 11 points and seven assists.
• Tampa shot 66 percent from the field and greater than 50 percent from both the deep ranged and the free-throw line. 
• For the entire game, Tampa only missed one layup, scoring a total of 42 points in the paint.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• Dori Nagy set a new career-high for points with 28 and a high shooting percentage of 72 percent.
• Kris Nelson tied her career-high for assists with a total of seven.
• This was only Sullivan's fifth game of the season scoring less than 10 points, but she dished out seven assists and grabbed nine rebounds to go along with her nine points.

UP NEXT: The Spartans will return to their home court in Tampa to compete against Eckerd College on Jan. 29, at 5:30 PM. 

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