DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team was unable to pull out a win in the final game of the regular season on Saturday. The Eagles dropped their Sunshine State Conference finale to Nova Southeastern 67-54 at the ICI Center. The Eagles closed out their 2019-20 regular season campaign at 9-16 overall and 7-13 in the SSC, while the Sharks moved to 14-13 and 10-10 in league play.

"The game was back and forth all night and just came down to possessions and defensive stops when it mattered," ERAU Head Coach Lisa Wilson said. "We have to do better down the stretch and take good shots and take care of the ball, but more importantly we have to sit down and defend. Credit to Nova for executing and pounding the ball inside the last part of the fourth. We did some good things tonight and we have seen a lot of progress from the beginning of the year." 

Three Eagles had 11-point performances on Saturday with Sarah Jones, Nikki Tucker and Sydney Jones each scoring in double-digits. Sydney Jones and Shelby Bischoff each finished with eight rebounds, which matched a career-high for Bischoff.

Maria Bardeeva led all players with 20 points while Jordan Tully added 16 to the Sharks' win.

Both sides traded the lead throughout the early part of the first quarter and with 3:43 left in the frame, the score was tied at 9-9. After misses by both teams, Sydney Jones drove to the basket at the 2:59 mark and her layup started a 12-4 run that gave ERAU a 21-13 lead heading into the second.

The Eagles were able to build the advantage to as many as 10 points in the second period, but the Sharks, who shot 52.9 percent in the second 10 minutes of play, used an 11-0 run to overtake the home team 29-28. The final 2:59 of the half featured two ties and four lead changes and at the intermission the score was tied, 34-34.

A closely contested third quarter saw ERAU and NSU knock down six field goals apiece. The Sharks edged the Eagles 16-15 to win the quarter and took a 50-49 lead into the final frame.

The fourth quarter proved to be the Eagles' undoing as they managed just one field goal in that frame. The Sharks, however, were 7-of-13 from the field in the final 10 minutes of play and outscored ERAU 17-5 to take the win.

Saturday's contest was the final regular season game for seniors Jessica Savage and Marisa Koopmann. Savage's career with the Eagles spanned five seasons as she was a redshirt in her first year at ERAU. She completed her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 and will receive her master's degree in Mechanical engineering May. Koopmann played for the Eagles for four seasons and will receive her bachelor's degree in Human Factors Psychology May.
"I'm very, very proud of our seniors and will miss "Koop" and "Jessi" so much," Wilson stated. "We appreciate all they have done for this program and we know they are going to do great things once they leave ERAU."

The final regular season standings have the Eagles in a tie for eighth with Lynn. However, since the Eagles defeated Lynn in both regular season games, the Eagles win the tiebreaker and grab the eighth and final spot in the Sunshine State Conference Tournament. Tournament play begins on Tuesday and will the Eagles travel to Tampa to take on No. 1 seed Tampa.