DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Sabrina Whiting drove down the left side of the lane to score the game-winning bucket with 0.3 seconds left on Wednesday night, giving the Embry-Riddle women's basketball team a 71-69 victory over visiting Florida Tech. The Blue and Gold improved to 13-4 and 7-3 in SSC play thanks to career performances from Nicole Tucker and Morgan Ackermann, while the Panthers fell to 8-8, 5-5 in league games.
 
Tucker poured in a career- and game-high 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting while also grabbing a game-high seven rebounds. Ackermann was a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor, including 4-of-4 from behind the arc, for a career-best 19 points. Whiting added 14 points, including 11 in the second half, and five boards while Ashley McWilliams chipped in with eight points.
 
"Offensively we were clicking tonight and that kept us in the game," ERAU Head Coach Lisa Nuxol-Wilson said after the game. "But we aren't happy with our defense tonight. We definitely put them on the free throw line too much – 21 points from the charity stripe is a lot. I am proud of the team for stepping up while Tara Fields was out. This was a good win against a good, physical, quick team, but we still have to improve our consistency on both ends of the floor."
 
Florida Tech got off to a hot start, opening the game on a 7-0 run. The Eagles quickly rallied back, scoring 10 straight points to take a 10-7 lead with 3:20 to play in the first quarter. The lead changed hands four more times in the closing minutes of the quarter, with Ackermann's triple at the end of the period giving the Eagles an 18-16 advantage.
 
After FIT tied the game at 18 on its first possession of the second quarter, Ackermann knocked down back-to-back threes to put ERAU ahead by six (24-18), and the Eagles would remain in front for the rest of the quarter, with the home team holding a 34-32 lead at the end of the first half.
 
The Blue and Gold increased its advantage to as many as seven points in the third quarter, pulling out to a 44-37 lead on a Tucker layup with 6:16 to play in the period, and the Eagles would maintain a five-point cushion (56-51) heading into the final quarter.
 
McWilliams knocked down a jumper with 6:15 left in the game that increased ERAU's lead to nine points (63-54), which would prove to be the largest lead of the game. The Panthers went on an 8-1 run over the next four minutes to trim the deficit to just two points (64-62) with 2:17 to play. FIT got within a point at 68-67 when Kailyn Ebb knocked down a pair of free throws with 28 seconds left. After Lauren Ellenberger made one of two free throws just three seconds later, the Panthers got the ball back and were able to get a layup from Delise Williams with just five seconds remaining that tied the game at 69. The Eagles called timeout to advance the ball, and Whiting was able to receive the inbounds pass cleanly, curl around a screen and drive the lane for the game-winning layup.
 
The Eagles are back home next Wednesday, Jan. 24, to host Palm Beach Atlantic at 5:30 p.m. in the final game of this four-game home stand.