ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team opened its first season as a full member of NCAA II with a win on Friday, downing Christian Brothers (0-1) 68-58 in the first game of the Regional Tip-Off Challenge hosted by Eckerd.
 
"This was a great game for us to play to start the season off to show us what we need to work on," ERAU Head Coach Lisa Nuxol-Wilson. "Defensively, we had to guard just about everything in the game of basketball. They ran a great Princeton offense and spread the floor, so I was proud of our defensive effort and energy. We executed well and took care of the ball in the first half, but got a little sloppy with the ball in the second half.  Our team did what we needed to do to get the win down the stretch, which is important to see this early in the season."
 
The Eagles had four players score in double figures, led by Sabrina Whiting who tallied a game-high 19 points to go with nine rebounds and three assists. Tara Fields and Sigrid Sandstrom finished with 14 points apiece, while Ashley McWilliams added 10 points off the bench for an Eagle team that never trailed in the game.
 
The Eagles used a 10-0 run to open up an early double-digit lead on the Lady Bucs in the first period. CBU rallied late, scoring nine of their 11 points to narrow the gap to eight (19-11) at the end of the quarter.
 
The second quarter saw the Blue and Gold increase its lead to 11 points, but a 6-0 run allowed the Lady Bucs to cut into that lead and with 1:28 left in the quarter, Kelsey Adkins finished a layup that made it a seven-point (29-22) game. The Eagles, who shot 43.8 percent from long range in the first 20 minutes, had an answer for the CBU surge as they got three-pointers from Whiting and Sandstrom to head in the halftime break up 35-24.
 
Eagle fouls and turnovers to start the third allowed the Lady Bucs to cut the lead to six (39-33). While they enjoyed success from behind the arc in the first half, the Eagles opted to go inside in the third quarter and that move paid off as the Eagles tallied 14 of their 20 third-quarter points and outscored CBU 16-8 in the latter part of the quarter to increase their lead to 14 (55-41).
 
The ERAU offense struggled at the onset of the fourth quarter and CBU took advantage, outscoring the Eagles 9-0 in the first two minutes to make it a 55-50 game. Sandstrom ended the scoring drought with a three-pointer and from that point a back-and-forth battle ensued.
 
Miscues by both teams resulted in a three-minute stretch during which neither side was able to add to its score. The next points were scored by CBU from the charity stripe, but ERAU scored the remaining four points of the contest to come away with the 10-point win.
 
The Eagles will close out tournament play at 1 p.m. on Saturday against West Alabama.
 
"Everyone on our roster did a great job preparing each other in practice this last week and we are going to need that to get through a long season and the tough schedule we have," Wilson continued. "I'm very proud of our team, but we have another tough one tomorrow against West Alabama so have to refocus and get ready."