DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team earned its second Sunshine State Conference win in as many games as the Eagles defeated Barry 68-53 at the ICI Center on Saturday. ERAU avenged a four-point loss to the Buccaneers earlier this season (Jan. 2) and improved to 9-12 overall and 7-8 in conference play.
"We did a better job executing tonight and played together," said ERAU Head Coach
Lisa Wilson who won her 150th game at the helm of ERAU Women's Basketball on Saturday. "I'm proud of our effort on the boards tonight and that made a big difference. We stuck with the game plan for the majority of the game. Our bench did a great job tonight too and the team has committed to practicing a higher level to help prepare each other. We need to keep that up and do what we need to get each other ready."
The Eagles shot better than 50 percent from the field for the fourth time this season, connecting on 28 of their 53 field goal attempts for a 52.8 percent clip.
Nikki Tucker,
Sydney Jones and
Sarah Jones all scored in double digits for the Eagles with Tucker and
Sydney Jones tallying 15 points apiece and
Sarah Jones adding 14 points. Tucker,
Rachel Murray and
Shelby Bischoff led a dominant Eagle effort on the glass with seven rebounds apiece as the Eagles bested the Bucs 41-28 on the boards.
The Bucs led 3-1 early in the contest, but three-pointers by Tucker and Bischoff, as well as layups by Tucker and Murray staked the Blue and Gold to an 11-3 lead at the 6:59 mark. Barry was able to narrow the gap to five points (11-6), but the Eagles finished the first quarter shooting 61.5 percent (8-of-13) from the field and led 21-10 heading into the second frame.
A low-scoring second frame saw both teams combine for just nine made field goals. The Eagles extended their lead to 17 (27-10), but the Bucs scored nine points off seven Eagle turnovers to cut into the lead and with 53 seconds left in the first half, back-to-back threes by Harriet Swindells made it an eight-point game (30-22). Following a Carly Sanders miss, Tucker grabbed the rebound and handed it off to Murray who took the ball down the court with 27 seconds left in the half. As the shot clock ticked down Tucker got the ball out to Murray on the wing and the freshman buried her first three of the afternoon to give ERAU a 33-22 advantage at the half.
With 2:31 left in the third quarter, Ashleigh Pink scored on a layup to make it a 10-point game, (47-37) in favor of the Eagles. Although they shot 62 percent (8-of-13) from the field in the third quarter, the Bucs were unable to further close the gap as the Eagles registered a blistering 73 percent (8-of-11) field goal shooting percentage in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
The Eagles, who are now in a three way tie for fourth place in the league standings, will be back in action at the ICI Center at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday when they host league leader Tampa.
