DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team earned its second straight Sunshine State Conference victory on Wednesday, topping Nova Southeastern (8-6, 4-4) 74-56 at the ICI Center. The win moved the Eagles' overall record to 11-4 and broke a tie for fifth with NSU in the league standings with a 5-3 league mark.
 
Eight of the nine Eagle players who took the court appeared in the scoring column with three individuals recording double-digit tallies. Tara Fields led all players with 17 points, while Nicole Tucker and Sabrina Whiting scored 13 points apiece.
 
The Sharks scored the first points of the game on an Alison Hughes three-pointer, but Fields, who scored the first seven points for the Eagles, put ERAU in front, 7-5, with a pair of free throws, and that ignited a 14-7 run that led to a 21-14 Eagle lead heading into the second quarter.
 
The second 10 minutes of play saw the Eagle offense shoot 58.3 percent from the field, while the defense limited the Sharks to just three made field goals in the period. Three of the Eagles' starters were saddled with two fouls apiece, but the bench picked up the slack outscoring the Shark bench 8-0 to help ERAU widen its lead to 13 points (37-24) at halftime.
 
After a third quarter that saw the Eagles edge NSU 14-12, the Eagles were virtually unstoppable in the fourth, shooting 80 percent from the field and 87.5 percent from the free throw line. After ERAU increased its lead to 17 (63-46), the Sharks knocked down a pair of threes, a jumper and a layup to make it a 13-point (67-54) game with 2:56 left to play. However, that is as close as the visitors would get as the Eagles, who made eight trips to the charity stripe in the last 2:34, converted all but one of those free throws to seal the 18-point victory.
 
The Blue and Gold will play the second game of a four-game homestand against Barry at 4 p.m. on Saturday.