LAKELAND, Fla. - Playing its second consecutive NCAA II opponent, the Embry-Riddle women's basketball team suffered its first road defeat in the new program's history, falling to future Sunshine State Conference foe Florida Southern by a score of 70-42 on Saturday afternoon. The loss evens the Eagles record at 2-2 while FSC improves to 3-2.
Ashley McWilliams led the Blue and Gold with 11 points while Sabrina Whiting chipped in 10 and Mercedes Jorge added nine to go along with six rebounds. Kalah Martin contributed five points and grabbed a team-high seven boards.
Mariah Harris tallied game-highs in points (13) and rebounds (11) for FSC, while Morgan Siebka scored 12 points and Shaquita Snow scored nine and dished out a game-high nine assists.
The Eagles struggled from the field in the first half, connecting on 4-of-23 field goal attempts for a 17.39 shooting percentage in the period. ERAU also turned it over 17 times in the first half, leading to 21 points for the Mocs.
Jorge got the Blue and Gold on the board first with an and-one just 18 seconds into the game, but Embry-Riddle didn't score for the next 9:36 as FSC built a 13-3 lead. A three by McWilliams cut the deficit to seven (19-12) with 6:54 to play before halftime, but Florida Southern closed out the period on a 19-2 run to increase its lead to 38-14 at the break.
The Mocs continued to push early in the second half, building their advantage to 30 (46-16) just over three minutes into the period. Gianna Vastola knocked down a jumper with 8:59 to play that gave FSC its largest lead of the game at 36 points (62-26). The Eagles were able to reduce the deficit over the game's final minutes thanks to much-improved numbers shooting the basketball in the second half. ERAU was 10-of-24 in the period (41.7%) and 5-of-7 from the charity stripe (71.4%) which led to a point total that was double that of the first half (28-14).
The Eagles return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 3 when they travel to Webber International for the program's first-ever Sun Conference matchup. Tip-off is slated for 5:30 p.m., with the ERAU and WIU men's teams taking the floor immediately following the women's game.
