Box Score WINTER PARK, Fla. - For a team that had been in its fair share of tight games early in the season, it was nice to earn a rather comfortable victory on the road.
The Eckerd College women's basketball team was dominant in the first half, then continued to make plays when it counted in the second half on the way to a 73-59 win over Rollins College to stay perfect in Sunshine State Conference play.
The Tritons (4-1, 2-0 SSC) used first-quarter runs of 10-2 and 7-0 to build a 10-point lead, then kept adding to it in the second quarter. EC led by as many as 21 in the first half before taking a 44-25 lead into halftime.
"This was our best game from an offensive execution standpoint," said Eckerd head coach
Paul Honsinger. "We shared the ball really well. Our balance was very good."
The Tars (2-2, 1-1 SSC) tried various defensive looks, but EC had an answer for them all. Eckerd made 12 of its first 17 shots - many of which were lay-ups - while Rollins struggled to get open looks against an aggressive Triton defense, shooting only 25.7 percent in the first half.
Honsinger expected to see the Tars make a push, and they did in the third quarter thanks in part to foul trouble for Eckerd. Rollins went on an 8-0 run to start the second half and later rolled off seven unanswered points to pull within nine points with 11 seconds left in the quarter.
However,
Margaret Sundberg sliced through the defense and made lay-up as time expired to push the lead back into double-digits and take a little wind out of the Tars' sails.
The lead stayed at 10 or more for the majority of the fourth quarter, with Rollins managing to get within nine points only once on a 3-pointer by Marie Gilbert with 40 seconds left. That was as close as the Tars would get, though, as the Tritons made 5-of-6 free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.
Honsinger was pleased with the way his team held off the third-quarter push by Rollins, a team that has already knocked off two nationally-ranked opponents and took a third to overtime.
"Every team in our league is good enough to make a push back," he said. "I thought we answered it well."
Sundberg led a group of four players in double-figures with a career-high 17 points.
Anna Deegan and
Ashley Folsom both had 12 points while
Kacie Juday added 11. Eckerd cooled off considerably in the second half, but overcame it by going 23-of-27 from the free throw line for the game.
The Tritons return to action on Wednesday, December 2, hosting Florida Tech at 5:30 PM.
