Nova Rolls over Montana State, 79-55, Now 6-0

[tpenter]

At the Florida International University Thanksgiving Tournament, Nova took control of a close sloppy game in the last seven minutes of the first half, taking a 40-26 lead at the half. The three point shooting was still suspect early on, only 2-10 at the break. Taylor Holeman led the late charge in the half, scoring 11 points on 5-5 shooting.

The second half started with Nova raining threes at the start, hitting 6 of their first seven, outscoring Montana by 23-4 to blow open the game at 63-30 at the 14 minute mark and coasted the rest of the way. With Emily Leer and Kavunaa Edwards both getting into foul trouble, Holeman had a sparkling game shooting 8-8 for a career high 17 points. Everyone got more than a few minutes of playing time in this one. Jessica Wamala got lots of radio air time as the announcers were gushing over her Rhodes Scholar designation and she then knocked down a three pointer to put an exclamation point on the conversation.

Nova shot 52% for the game, 64% in the second stanza, including 7-11 on threes.

Nova will attempt to get to 7-0 against the tournament host Florida International on Sunday at 3 p.m. FIU won the opening game over Valparaiso in a game between two winless teams. However, FIU features Jerica Coley, the eighth leading scorer in the nation who netted 30 points in that game. As far as I can tell, I believe only one other Nova team started out 7-0 or better, the 1979-80 team that I think won their first 14.

Keep on Rollin' Nova!

This post was edited on 11/29 10:05 PM by tpenter

 

[UncleBill57]

Thanks again for the update.

 

[simpaul]

Great stuff tpenter..I was looking for a live feed for the game but couldn't find one..any leads for the Chip today? Great day for NOVA ball yesterday with the ladies and men both staying undefeated and the men knocking off Kansas. Now the ladiecan bring home some more hardware...

 

[tpenter]

I was not able to find any audio/video for the game, but "It's Just Me" had an e-mail out shortly before the game that indicated that it was on a Montana radio station online , even though it did not appear in their schedule. Sure enough, at 8 o'clock the feed kicked in and we got a nice audio broadcast from some pretty good announcers.

The game posting last night was entirely from the broadcast and I had no boxscore to review and immediately changed priorities to watching the men take down Kansas on TV. With the added advantage of the boxscore -

From a slim 24-23 lead at the 5:17 mark of the first half, Nova rolled up a 39-7 knockout punch over the next eleven minutes to go up 63-30 and end any hope for a Montana comeback. We only scored 16 points in the final fourteen minutes, but substitutes were coming and going most of that time. Montana was actually pressing our subs in the final minutes, probably to avoid a 30+ point differential. Four of the 13 total Nova turnovers occurred during the final four minutes.

Devon Kane played only 30 minutes in this one, but posted 16 points on 7-8 shooting, including 2-2 from three point land, both within 30 seconds of each other in the big opening run to start the second half. She also had 7 assists on the night. Caroline Coyer had 10 points in 23 minutes of action to go with 5 assists. Lauren Burford chipped in 11 points on 3-5 three point shooting. In addition to her 17 points, Holeman pulled down 10 boards to garner a double-double in only 26 minutes of action.

Never to take anything lightly, but unless we have a really bad day all around on Sunday, we should come home with a 7-0 record to get ready for the female version of the Holy War against St. Joes next Saturday. Video feed of the Florida International game should be available on their website. Game time is 3:00 Sunday.