DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's basketball team celebrated seniors
Keturah Balabyekkubo,
Amou Ring and
Eva Zaragoza in the final home game of the regular season with an 83-63 defeat of Barry (9-18, 4-15), Wednesday at the ICI Center. The Eagles solidified their hold on the No. 3 spot in the Sunshine State Conference standings with a 13-6 league record while improving their overall record to 19-7.
Freshman
Alyssa Brasko, who came into Wednesday's game averaging 1.4 points per contest, erupted for a game and career-high 18 points off the bench to lead the Eagle offense.
Madyson Jean-Louis added 15 points, two rebounds and two steals, while
Kailey Turpening added 10 points three boards and two assists.
Chandler Brooks also had a career high with eight points to go with five rebounds and four assists.
The Buccaneers were awarded a free throw to start the game and that helped the visitors take a five-point (9-4) lead early in the first quarter. Six first-quarter points each by Jean-Louis and
Sarah Napoli helped the Blue and Gold pull within a point, but the quarter ended with Barry ahead 20-17 heading into the second.
At the 7:11 mark of the second quarter, the Barry lead was five points (25-20). A little over a a minute after entering the game for the first time, Brasko connected on her first shot attempt of the evening and her layup triggered a 10-0 run that gave the five point (30-25) to the Eagles. A pair of buckets by Barry's Sanaya Shrader made it a three-point (32-29) game, but Brasko rolled to the basket for a layup to start another spurt and she capped an 11-5 Eagle run with a midrange jumper to send the home team into the locker room up 43-34 at the half.
The third quarter saw the Eagles shoot 63.6 percent (7-of-11) from the field, but it was the Buccaneers who won the quarter, 19-16. Barry outscored the Eagles 10-5 in the first three and a half minutes to narrow the gap to four (48-44). Embry-Riddle responded by increasing their lead to 10 but four unanswered points by Barry in the last 2:21 of the period reduced their deficit to six (59-53) heading into the final frame.
With Eagle lead at seven (64-57) at the 8:05 mark of the fourth, Chandler scored two of her career-best eight points. That score ignited the Eagle offense and they outscored the Buccaneers 9-0 over the next three minutes to make it a 16-point (73-57) game. Barry managed back-to-back field goals to stop the run, but those were their last field goals of the game as the Eagles used a 50 percent (7-of-14) shooting clip and 8-of-12 shooting from the free throw line to put the game away.
The Eagles will close out the regular season on Saturday when they travel to Boca Raton to face Lynn at 2 p.m.
The 2023-24 Embry-Riddle women's basketball season is presented by Daytona Mitsubishi.
