Box Score
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd College women's basketball program made an inspired bid to take down one of the nation's best in No. 14 Rollins College on Saturday afternoon, falling by a 55-62 decision in the McArthur Center.
Freshman
Taylor Bestry scored a career-high 13 points and sank 7-of-8 tries from the free-throw line, junior
Krystal Charles led EC with 14 and seniors
Taylor Young and
Kati Rausberg netted eight apiece.
RC's Ashley Jones recorded 13 of her game-high 20 points in the first half and teammate Paris Moore joined her in double-figures with 12. The Tars shot just a shade over 31 percent from the field, but hoisted up 30 more field-goal attempts than the Tritons.
The Tritons (12-7, 6-5 SSC) didn't allow the Tars (17-3, 9-2 SSC) to pull away with the game's largest deficit at a respectable 13-point margin.
Eckerd made Rollins feel uneasy down the stretch, clawing back and threatening to eventually take the lead in the latter stages.
Rollins led by as many as six in a tightly-contested first half. The Tritons had answer for almost every Tars' basket, trailing by just one point after three different possessions.
When it looked like Rollins would get a little breathing on a three-pointer by Kourtnie Berry with two minutes before the break, Eckerd answered in the form of Charles and a pair of free throws converted by senior
Linsey Niles.
The Tritons were down by just four at halftime, 29-33.
A three-point play Moore gave Rollins its first double-digit advantage with 15:39 remaining and Moore hit another jumper inside eight minutes to go to put the Tars up by 12.
Queue up the Australian Bestry, who scored eight of her team's next 10 points on five free-throws (including four consecutive makes) and a three-point basket to knife the deficit down to seven with plenty of time left.
Charles and Rausberg both made baskets to get the Tritons within five under three minutes to play, but Rollins held on for the victory.
The Tritons return back to the McArthur Center to continue their three-game homestand against Florida Southern College next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Live stats and live video will be streamed for the game at
www.eckerdtritons.com.
