BASKETBALL GAMEDAY: Tritons Head to Saint Leo as Final Week of SSC Play Begins

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The final week of the regular season begins tonight for the Eckerd basketball teams with a visit to Saint Leo for a pair of Sunshine State Conference contests.
 

#14/18 Eckerd (21-4, 14-2 SSC) at Saint Leo (9-15, 4-12 SSC)
WHEN	Wednesday, February 22 | 5:30 PM
WHERE	Bowman Activities Center; Saint Leo, Fla.
WATCH	Live Video | Live Stats
SOCIAL MEDIA	Twitter (@ECTritons) | Instagram (@EckerdTritons)
LAST MEETING	Eckerd 78, Saint Leo 67 (12/10/16)

ABOUT THE LIONS: Saint Leo appeared to hit a stride in February, rolling off four consecutive conference wins from February 4-15 but suffered an 83-53 setback on Saturday at Nova Southeastern.  The Lions feature the SSC's leading scorer in Chelsy Springs, who averages 15.7 points per game.  She has helped SLU to rank fourth in conference in team scoring; however, defense has been the team's issue this year as the Lions give up the most points per game in the SSC (72.3).

LAST TIME THEY MET: Eckerd used a 16-7 run in the third quarter to build a 16-point lead and led by double-digits the rest of the way in a 78-67 win over Saint Leo on Decemeber 10 in St. Petersburg.  The Tritons went 10-of-19 from 3-point range and placed four in double-figures led by Ada Yalcin's 19 points.  Gina Brierly led all scorers with 22 points.

CLOSING IN: A win tonight would clinch at least a share of the SSC Regular Season Championship for Eckerd, which would be its first conference title in program history.  The Tritons are also nearing the program's record for most wins (23) in a season, which was set in 2014-15.

AMONG THE LEADERS: Eckerd ranks in the top 20 in all of D-II in several statistical categories including scoring defense (55.1; 7th), field goal percentage (45.2, 15th), scoring margin (16.0, 16th) and turnover margin (5.52; 16th).
 

Eckerd (18-7, 11-5 SSC) at Saint Leo (12-14, 6-10 SSC)
WHEN	Wednesday, February 22 | 7:30 PM
WHERE	Bowman Activities Center; Saint Leo, Fla.
WATCH	Live Video | Live Stats
SOCIAL MEDIA	Twitter (@ECTritons) | Instagram (@EckerdTritons)
LAST MEETING	Eckerd 83, Saint Leo 67 (12/10/16)

ABOUT THE LIONS: A promising year hasn't developed for Saint Leo, which was picked to finish second in the conference but enters the night tied for eighth with Florida Tech at 6-10.  The Lions do have a win over conference leader Barry and rolled off four straight wins from January 18 through February 1.  However, SLU has lost four of its last five coming into tonight's game.  The Lions feature two of the conference's top scorers in Marcus Dewberry (19.4 points per game) and Justin Satchell (15.8)

LAST TIME THEY MET: Saint Leo came into the game in St. Petersburg on December 10 riding the momentum of a win over then-No. 6 Barry, but Eckerd quickly slowed that down.  The Tritons jumped out to a 47-23 lead at halftime and cruised to an 83-67 win in the McArthur Center.  Five Tritons scored in double-figures led by 20 points from Trevon Young.

LOOKING FOR 400: Eckerd head coach Tom Ryan enters the game with 399 wins in his career and looks to join legendary EC coach and administrator Jim Harley in the 400-win club if the Tritons defeat Saint Leo tonight.

TITLE ON THE LINE: The Tritons still have a chance to claim another regular season conference championship.  If Barry wins tonight, Eckerd will need to win its final two games to take co-champion honors for the second straight year.  A Barry loss coupled with two Triton wins would give Eckerd the title outright.