FORT LAUDERALE, Fla. – The 2017-18 Embry-Riddle women's basketball team is off to the best start in program history. The Eagles improved to 6-0 on the year with a 77-61 win over West Alabama on the final day of the NSU Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Nova Southeastern. Saturday's game marked West Alabama's second loss to the Eagles in as many weeks and dropped the Tigers' record to 2-4 on the year.
 
Three individuals posted career high performances for the Eagles who shot 53.3 percent (32-60) from the field and 47.4 (9-19) percent from beyond the arc, and had a program-best 30 assists on 32 field goals. Senior Tara Fields led the way for the Blue and Gold with a career-best 30 points to go with six boards and three assists. Freshman Nikki Tucker also had the best scoring outing of her young career with 17 points, while Lauren Ellenberger, the Eagles' all-time assist leader (234) dished out a career and game-high 11 assists. Junior transfer Morgan Ackermann also chipped in a season-best nine points, four rebounds and a block.
 
Turnovers plagued Embry-Riddle in the early stages of the contest as four miscues in the first five minutes helped the Tigers to a 10-6 lead.  At the 2:42 mark, Ackermann blocked a Tiger shot, grabbed the rebound and knocked down a three on the other end of the floor pull the Eagles level at 13.
 
The score was still tied with five seconds left to play, and following a West Alabama miss, Ashley McWilliams grabbed the rebound and quickly found Sabrina Whiting whose layup beat the buzzer and gave the Eagles a 17-15 lead heading into the second frame.
 
The Eagles began the second quarter with back to back threes to take widen the gap to seven points (23-16), but after that, the Eagle offense went cold and the Tigers went on a 10-0 run to overtake the Blue and Gold 26-23. With 4:34 left in the quarter Ackermann drilled her second three of the game to end the drought and key a 4-0 ERAU run that led to a 33-31 edge for the Eagles at the half.
 
Fields scored the Eagles' first eight points of the game, but was then silent through the remainder of the first half. In the third quarter, she came out firing, scoring the Eagles first 12 points of the frame to stake ERAU to a 43-37 lead. The Eagles were 10-of-16 from the field in the third period and outscored the Tigers 26-12 to take a 59-43 lead into the final 10 minutes of play.
 
The Eagles continued to steadily extend their advantage and with 4:49 left to play, the lead was 21 points (69-48). The Tigers tried to rally late in the contest, but it wasn't enough as ERAU went on an 8-4 run to seal the win.

"Today was a good test of our mental toughness," ERAU Head Coach Lisa Nuxol-Wilson said. "To play back-to-back days with such quick turnaround, have some players fighting through being sick, and play a team for a second time in a two weeks isn't easy. We had a rough first half and West Alabama showed up ready to play. We had a good run to start the third quarter and picked up our defensive energy, which gave us some momentum. Lauren Ellenberger played a solid game and kept us in it and our team did a good job feeding Tara Fields the ball. She took care of it and worked hard down there.

"We need to be ready to play from the beginning of the game though, so hopefully we grew from this. I'm proud of the team for getting two more road wins and competing."
 
Embry-Riddle will resume its Sunshine State Conference schedule on Wednesday when they travel to Winter Park to face seventh-ranked Rollins at 5:30 p.m.