Box Score VALDOSTA, Ga. – Competing in their second game of the Holiday Inn Conference Challenge on Saturday, the Eckerd College women's basketball team suffered their first loss of the season to West Georgia, 66-61.
The Wolves opened the game by pulling away with a 10-2 run. The Tritons trailed 19-13 with eight minutes to play in the first half before
Kayla Bowlin put in a layup and got things rolling for EC.
Ivana Grbic put in a jumper and a free throw to bring her team within one, down 19-18. UWG then hit a big three pointer to get back to a four point lead. EC brought the ball down and nailed a jumper.
Rana Thomas pulled down a defensive rebound which turned into two points from
Trine Kasemagi to tie it up, 22-22, with two minutes remaining in the first half.
The defense held strong in the final minutes not allowing a basket while
Victoria Vine went 1 for 2 from the free throw line and added a big three point bucket with one second left on the clock. Vines late scoring rush gave her team a four point lead heading into the locker room, 26-22.
Grbic started the second half where she left off with two early points in the paint. The largest lead the Tritons held in the second half came with 14 minutes left on the clock when
Jordyn Alexander sent Grbic a pass for an easy layup putting EC up, 39-30.
West Georgia refused to go away never letting Eckerd get too far out in front. The Tritons would go up by three, and the Wolves would claw back within one or two. Kaylin Bowlin split the defense for two points to put her team back up by seven, 48-41, with 8:39 remaining in the game.
Eckerd held a slim two point lead with just over four minutes left before UWG ran off 12 unanswered points. The late run by the Wolves gave them the upper hand with just a minute left in the contest. EC fought hard to try and tie it up in the final seconds down 64-61, but could not pull off the late comeback, falling 66-61.
Grbic finished the game with 18 points and seven rebounds. Alexander was the Tritons second leading scorer with 11 points and six boards as Thomas and Vine both finished with nine points each.
"I thought our team competed hard, but we did not execute quite as well as we did yesterday," said Head Coach,
Paul Honsinger. "West Georgia was a physical team and they controlled the interior throughout the second half, which really hurt us."
When asked about the weekend as a whole, Honsinger said, "Overall, it was a good tournament for us and we learned a lot from our first two outings."
After going 1-1 on the weekend, Eckerd will head to St. Augustine, Fla. on Wednesday to take on Flagler College. Tip-off is slated for 5:30 p.m.
