LAKELAND, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team was the only team to sweep Florida Southern in regular season play, but the Eagles were unable to pull out a third win in the Sunshine State Conference tournament championship game on Sunday, falling to the Moccasins 87-68 at FSC's George Jenkins Field House. The win puts the Eagles at 23-7 on the year and they will wait to see if they are awarded a berth in the NCAA II tournament when the NCAA announces the 64-team tournament field at 10 p.m. on Sunday evening.
 
The second quarter proved to be the Eagles' undoing. The Eagles were fairly evenly matched with the Mocs in the opening frame and at the end of the first quarter, they only trailed the home team by two (15-13). However, in the second quarter, the Eagles were just 44.4 percent (4-for-9) from the free throw line. They shot 50 percent (5-of-10) from the field, but the Lady Mocs connected on 14 of their 21 field goal attempts, including 4-of-8 from behind the arc, to outscore the Eagles 35-14 in the quarter and take a 50-27 lead into the halftime break.
 
The Eagles won the scoring battle in the second half, besting the Lady Mocs 22-19 in the third and 19-18 in the fourth, but the second-quarter deficit was too much to overcome resulting the FSC win.
 
Tara Fields had her second-highest scoring output of the season, finishing with a team-high 27 points, while Ellenberger tallied 13 points, six assists and six rebounds, and Sabrina Whiting added 11 points, three rebounds and three assists.
 
Following the game, Fields and Ellenberger were named to All-Tournament team. Fields averaged 16.3 points and 4.7 boards in the three tournament games, while Ellenberger averaged 13.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 7.7 assists and three steals per game.
 
Tournament MVP Camille Giardina scored a game-high 33 points, while another All-Tournament team honoree, Anja Fuchs-Robetin, tallied 28 points and nine rebounds for a Lady Moc team that improved to 25-4 with the win.
 
"We had some breakdowns and really dug a hole for ourselves in the second quarter," ERAU Head Coach Lisa Nuxol-Wilson said. "But we are really proud of our team for the fight that they showed and how hard they worked. We wanted to win the second half and we did that. It just wasn't enough to compensate for that lull in the second quarter. We played hard in the second half; we didn't quit, we continued to fight. That's what we do. It just wasn't enough to come back on them. They are a strong offensive team, and its tough to come back on them on their home court when they were shooting so well.
 
"We've put ourselves in a position that hopefully the regional selection committee will recognize how well we've done this season with the regional wins and the wins in the Sunshine State that we've had. Hopefully, we're not done and we'll have a chance to learn from this."