MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – A tough night shooting the basketball proved to be the Eagles' undoing as the Embry-Riddle women's basketball team fell to Barry 64-60 at the Lady Bucs' Health & Sports Center on Thursday. The Eagles are now 5-6 overall and 3-2 in the Sunshine State Conference with the loss, while Barry moves to 3-8 overall and 1-4 in league play.
 
ERAU did a good job taking care of the basketball as they recorded a season-low seven turnovers while forcing 13 Barry miscues. But the Eagles were just 22-of-73 from the field, which marked their lowest shooting percentage of the season of 30.1%. 
 
"We're disappointed in the outcome, of course, but we are really proud of how hard we played and our effort on defense," ERAU Head Coach Lisa Wilson remarked. "We also took care of the ball – finally - with only seven turnovers. This was our first game back after 10 days off and in road game against a good Barry team, we just didn't make shots that we usually make and that hurt us tonight. We have to get after it practice tomorrow and bounce back for Saturday."
 
The Eagles got off to a slow start offensively going scoreless in the first 2:36 of Thursday's contest. The Eagles' shooting woes allowed the Lady Bucs to jump out to a 5-0 lead and the home team  led by seven points (14-7) with 1:47 left in the first period, but the Eagles scored the last three points of the frame to cut the Barry lead to four (14-10) heading into the second. 
 
ERAU continued to chip away at the lead and at the 7:53 mark of the second quarter they tied the game for the first time at 15-15. With 3:28 left in the period, Keturah Balabyekkubbo scored on a layup to tie the game at 22-22 and just over a minute later, the freshman struck again to give the Eagles their first lead of the game, 24-22. A Sadie Walsh free throw gave the Blue and Gold a 25-22 advantage at the half.
 
The third quarter got off to a promising start as the Eagles went on an 8-2 run to extend the cushion to six points (33-26). But over the next 6:42, the Eagle offense went cold. ERAU managed just one field goal during that stretch and going into the fourth quarter, Barry was back in front 39-37.
 
The Eagles scored just four points in the first four minutes which allowed Barry to widen the gap to seven points (48-41), but back-to-back threes by Rachel Murray and Macee Sugrue pulled the Eagles within three (50-47) with 7:21 remaining. The next two minutes belonged to Barry, however, as an 8-0 run made it 55-47 in favor of the home team with 5:20 left to play.
 
Wilson called a timeout to get her team back on track and the strategy paid off as a Sarah Jones trey coming out of the huddle triggered a 13-5 Eagle run. With 50 seconds left, Jones drove to the basket and after being fouled while making a layup, the sophomore knocked down the free throw to knot the score at 60-60.
 
After Narea Baena reclaimed a two-point lead for the Lady Bucs with 31 seconds remaining, the Eagles had a chance to tie things up again, but Imani Jones' shot missed the mark and Barry went 2-for-2 from the free throw line in the closing seconds of the contest to seal the win.
Sarah Jones finished as the game's leading scorer with 20 points to go with five board, three steals and two assists. Imani Jones added 10 points, while Nikki Tucker led the team on the boards with eight rebounds.
 
The remainder of the Eagles' slate will be against conference opponents and the Blue and Gold will be back in the ICI Center on Saturday to host Florida Tech at 4 p.m.