Lions Ledger: Basketballs Travel to Nova while Track Heads Back to Bama

Jan 31, 2020

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RECORDS: Saint Leo 9-11, 5-7 SSC | Nova Southeastern 10-8, 6-5 SSC
Saint Leo suffered a heartbreaking 67-65 loss to the Florida Southern Moccasins, ranked 10th in the South Region, on Wednesday in the Marion Bowman Activities Center. The Sunshine State Conference (SSC) battle came down to the wire, when a last-second layup lifted the Mocs over the Lions, overcoming a 16-point deficit. The Lions' dominant start was driven by Alex Button, who recorded a career-high 29 points. The sophomore guard went 9-for-19, 6-for-10 from downtown, and a perfect 5-for-5 on the line. She added nine rebounds and an assist to her stellar performance.
On the season, Amanda Ulrich leads the Green and Gold offense with 14.4 points per game (ppg) followed closely by Button with 13.6 ppg and Alani Gallagher with 13.5 ppg and a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game (rpg).
Sitting seventh among the current SSC league standings, the Lions boast Button's conference leading three-point field goal percentage of .470-percent. On the other side of the ball, Gallagher remains the SSC top blocker with 1.5 a game, 29 on the season. As a team, Saint Leo has compiled a .428-field goal percentage, .637-percent beyond the arch, and a .682-percent at the charity stripe. The Lions hit the road averaging 71.7 ppg and 36.8 rpg.
Nova Southeastern's winning streak came to a halt at four on Saturday, Jan. 25 after facing the #25 Tampa Spartans (67-66). Jordan Tully had her fifth consecutive 20-point game, finishing with 22 points on 9-of-14 from the field. The Sharks enjoyed a week of recovery in preparation to host the Lions.
On the season, Tully paces the offense with 18.7 ppg alongside Hailey Conley with 14.7 ppg, and Claire McMahon with 10.5 ppg and a team-high 7.1 prg.
Nova stands fourth in the SSC standings. Tully has had a tremendous season as the league's top scorer averaging 18.7 ppg while earning the top field-goal percentage at .583-percent. Tully is also right behind Gallagher in blocked shots with 1.4 per game, 25 on the season. As a team, the Sharks average 70.9 ppg handing in a .464-field goal percentage, .349-percent from downtown, and .712-percent at the line
HISTORY: Saint Leo has only beaten Nova three times in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. in the all-time series. The last time Saint Leo upset Nova on the Sharks hardwood was on Dec. 5, 2009 in a 69-66 overtime decision. More recently, Saint Leo last defeated Nova in the Bowman Center on Feb. 7, 2018 in a 55-52 final. This season, on Dec. 7, 2019, the Sharks broke away in the third quarter at Saint Leo, to put the game just out of reach for the Lions to recover in the fourth quarter; 70-67. In the tight meeting, Ulrich put up 21 points helped by Button with 16 points.

RECORDS: Saint Leo 13-7, 7-5 SSC | #6 Nova Southeastern 15-2, 9-2 SSC
Saint Leo is on the road and will take on No. 6 Nova Southeastern after suffering a 114-103 loss Wednesday to No. 7 Florida Southern. In the loss, Isaiah Hill led the team with 32 points while Kyran McClure (17), Rusty Moorer (15) and Tyler Carter (11) all reached double-figures.
Kyran McClure, Isaiah Hill and Rusty Moorer continue to lead the Lions in scoring, averaging 21.0, 17.3, and 10.9 points per game (ppg), respectively.
No. 6 Nova Southeastern will host the Green and Gold after blowing out Tampa 130-76 where six players scored in double-digits and four of those at 20-plus points. Mark Matthews paced the team with 22 points.
On the season, Matthews is the ringleader averaging 22.3 points per game while Nick Smith (14.5) and Connor Zinaich (12.8) are second and third in scoring average for the Sharks.
HISTORY: In the meeting earlier this year, Nova Southeastern came away with a 92-77 win in the Marion Bowman Acitivites Center where RJ Sunahara led all scorers with 25 points, where he added 10 rebounds to tally his double-double. Rusty Moorer led the Lions with 20 points off the bench.

The Saint Leo men's and women's track programs travel to Brimingham, Ala. for the third-straight weekend to compete in the Jaguar Invitational hosted by the University of South Alabama.
The Lions have had a pair of highly successful weekends in Birmingham as several program records have fallen. Freshman Pierre Galbourdin has won for the Lions on both weekends including the 5,000m two weeks ago and the 3,000m this past weekend.
Sophomore Aoife Mahony has been having a strong campaign on the women's side and won the 600m at last weekend's KMS Invitational.
The Lions have one more indoor meet on the regular season schedule, the South Carolina Invitational in Columbia, S.C. February 7-8.

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