DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team kept it close for a half against No. 24 St. Thomas on Saturday, but the Bobcats pulled away late to earn a 62-44 victory at the ICI Center. STU maintains its lead in the conference, improving to 21-4 and 14-1 in league play, while the Eagles slip to 14-11 overall and 6-9 in conference.

Taylor Cyphers led the Blue and Gold with 12 points while Hannah Carine chipped in seven and Kalah Martin scored six. Sabrina Whiting pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds and Mercedes Jorge corralled nine boards.

Dannisha Pierce led all scorers with 22 points and added seven rebounds and three steals. Antishia Wright contributed 14 points, seven boards and three steals while Claudia Martin scored eight points to go along with seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.

After the Bobcats scored the first four points of the game, ERAU went on an 8-0 run to take an 8-4 lead just over five minutes into the contest. Martin turned a steal into an easy layup to increase the lead to 12-6 with 11:31 left in the half, which would prove to be the Eagles' largest lead.

St. Thomas rattled off 12 consecutive points  over the next five minutes to establish an 18-12 lead. Embry-Riddle cut into the deficit near the end of the period, but the Bobcats maintained a three-point advantage (26-23) at the end of the first half.

Cyphers scored on a layup just over four minutes into the second half to tie the game at 29, and the Eagles would tie the game two more times in the next minute of play. After Cyphers tied it with another layup to make it 33-33, St. Thomas scored 18 points in a row to build up a sizable advantage (51-33) with 8:09 left.

Less than 48 hours removed from playing a five-overtime game, Embry-Riddle couldn't find enough offense left in the tank to mount a comeback and the Bobcats came away with a 62-44 victory.

Embry-Riddle will be back in action inside the ICI Center on Tuesday, Feb. 17, when they host Thomas at 5:30 p.m.