Box Score
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd College women's basketball team handcuffed Queens (N.C.) University of Charlotte to just 22 percent shooting from the field to polish off an unbeaten showing at its own Thanksgiving Classic on Saturday, 66-46.
The Tritons (3-1, 0-0 SSC) tamed the Royals (1-4 overall) to just a 20 percent clip in the first half and kept their opponent under the 25 percent mark in the final period. Eckerd toppled the University of Puerto Rico-Bayamon in Friday's action to finish the tourney with a 2-0 record.
Scoring was equally distributed up-and-down the roster for the Tritons, paced by 11 from senior guard
Kati Rausberg.
Linsey Niles added nine while
Taylor Young and
Amy Buccilla each poured in eight.
The Eckerd reserves also made key contributions and ended up doubling Queens' bench scoring output, 26-13.
Going into this afternoon's game, the defensive strategy around the Royals was centered around Queens' leading scorer Shonice Pettaway, who finished with a game-high 17, but was 6-of-23 from the floor.
Playing a mixture of man-to-man and zone defense, the Tritons swarmed the talented 6-0 forward, contesting every shot and forcing her to fade away from the basket.
Even though the Royals took 27 shots from the foul line, EC held a 46-41 edge in the rebounding department.
“Our focus for this game was rebounding and defense,” EC Head Coach
Paul Honsinger said. “Our helpside defense was very good and we wanted to take the open drives for No. 23 (Pettaway). We may have fouled a little more than what we'd like, but we were able to go out and execute our offense much better today.”
The Tritons opened the game with a 10-2 run spanning the first four minutes and the lead swelled to 10 at the 12:04 mark after a three-point bucket by Rausberg.
Already up 20-10, the Royals went scoreless for a four-minute stretch as EC's lead was pushed to 15.
Young hit a pair of free throws for Eckerd's largest lead of the first half at 18 with five minutes to go before the break. Queens ended up scoring 12 of their 24 first-half points from the charity stripe, the rest on just six field goals.
Rausberg hit a jumper to begin the second half and drained another mid-range shot as the Tritons led by 20 for the first time.
Freshman guard
Kayla Bowlin then made an acrobatic layup while crashing to the court to maintain the 20-point edge at the midway point while freshman
Taylor Bestry and Niles cashed in on breakaway layups to push the margin to 25.
Another Bestry layup on a feed from Bowlin gave the Tritons their biggest lead of the game at 27.
The Tritons will take their 3-1 record into Sunshine State Conference play to ring in the month of December, heading to Florida Tech for the league opener next Saturday. Tip-off in Melbourne is scheduled for 2 p.m.
