LAKELAND, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team extended its winning streak to four games with a 57-51 win against Florida Southern (13-12, 9-9) at the Moccasins' George W. Jenkins Field House on Saturday. The Eagles fended off a late rally by the Lady Mocs to even their overall record at 12-12 and improve their Sunshine State Conference record to 7-11.
The Eagles opened the game with a strong defensive effort, grabbing four steals and forcing eight turnovers to hold the Lady Mocs to just nine shot attempts. While the defense was solid, the Eagles struggled offensively, connecting on just five of 16 shots on the way to a 10-7 lead at the end of the quarter.
The second 10 minutes of Saturday's game did not produce much more in the way of offense for the Eagles as they connected on just four shots from the field. The period was scoreless through the first two and a half minutes until FSC's Marissa Jenike hit the first three of the game for either team to tie the score at 10-10. Although they were unsuccessful in their first six free throw attempts, the Eagles managed to put together a 12-3 run that gave them a 22-13 lead with 3:26 left in the half. However, a series of turnovers on consecutive possessions prevented the Eagles from adding to their tally and the Lady Mocs were able to close the gap to 22-19 at the half.
Quick spurts on both sides marked play in the third quarter. A
Jenna Teterycz three and a
Sydney Jones layup accounted for a 5-0 run that put the Eagles up by eight (27-19) to start the third. The Lady Mocs put together a run of their own to make it a one-point game (27-26) with 6:47 left in the quarter. Over the next three and a half minutes, Florida Southern edged Embry-Riddle 7-6 to tie the game at 33-33 and an Ashley Shell free throw gave the Lady Mocs their first lead (34-33) with 59 ticks left in the frame.
Following the free throw, Teterycz found
Madyson Jean-Louis on the left side, and she drained a three-pointer to put the Eagles back in front. On the Lady Mocs' next trip down the floor,
Kailey Turpening stripped the ball away from Jenike, regaining possession for the Blue and Gold. Holding for the last shot of the quarter, Balabyekkubo drove toward the basket before kicking the ball out to
Eva Zaragoza at the top of the arc. Zaragoza found an unmarked Jean-Louis on the left side again, and the sophomore buried another three as time expired to put the Eagles up 39-34 heading into the fourth.
The Eagles shot 83.3 percent (5-of-6) from the field in the final frame and held a seven-point advantage through the first half of the fourth quarter. Once again, the Lady Mocs mounted a rally and an 8-0 run that culminated in a Domenica Zamora three erased the deficit and put the home team up 51-50 with 2:20 remaining in the contest. The Eagles' only second chance points of the quarter came on their next possession as Jones finished a Teterycz feed to put the Eagles back in front.
After a pair of free throws by Teterycz gave the Eagles a 54-51 cushion with 58 seconds left, both teams struggled to take care of the basketball combining for three turnovers over the next 23 seconds. Still trailing by three with 25 seconds left, the Lady Mocs had a few looks at the basket, but they were unable to connect and
Rachel Murray grabbed the defensive rebound on their third straight miss with six seconds on the clock. The Lady Mocs immediately fouled Balabyekkubo on the inbounds play and after she hit both free throws, Jones snagged a steal and made a free throw of her own to seal the win for the Eagles.
Jean-Louis and Balabyekkubo finished with 15 and 10 points, respectively, while
Kelli Thomas came off the bench to tally a team-high six rebounds to go with six points.
The Eagles will host Rollins in the final home game of the season on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
The 2022-23 Embry-Riddle women's basketball season is presented by Daytona Mitsubishi.
