Tritons Top Florida Southern to Claim First-Ever SSC Championship

Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - It's been a long time coming for Eckerd women's basketball coach Paul Honsinger.

A season full of history-making moments added another to the list on Saturday as Honsinger's Tritons claimed the program's first-ever conference championship with a 68-63 win over Florida Southern in the McArthur Center.

"This was a goal we set early in the year and our girls really wanted to finish it today," Honsinger said.  "We've had this in our sights for several years as a program.  This hasn't been an overnight success.  It's been a gradual process of doing things right and it culminated in winning the conference."

While it wasn't a tournament game, the outcome had all the implications of one.  Win, and Eckerd earns the regular season title.  Lose, and the championship goes to Florida Southern.

"Our girls were well aware of the stakes and that makes the win all the more gratifying," said Honsinger.  "We had a great will to win."

That will to win was highlighted by several big plays down the stretch.

After the Mocs pulled within a point with 5:30 to play, Anna Deegan knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put Eckerd ahead by four.

With EC holding a two-point lead a little more than a minute later, Ada Yalcin made an acrobatic reverse layup on a backdoor pass from Ashley Folsom.  Deegan then drained another 3 on Eckerd's next possession, extending the lead to 68-61 with 2:55 remaining.

Eckerd (23-4, 16-2 SSC) didn't score for the rest of the game but didn't need to.  The Triton defense forced Florida Southern into quick shots, resulting in five straight misses.  And when the Tritons had possession, they held the ball deep into the shot clock to shave more time off the game.

FSC's Giulia Simioni broke a four-minute drought for the Mocs with 15 seconds left, and the team elected not to foul as Eckerd ran out the clock and began the celebration for its first SSC title.

The Tritons got off to a hot start building an 11-point lead but stalled when Yalcin went to the bench with her second foul.  FSC (19-8, 14-4 SSC) outscored Eckerd, 20-11, in the second quarter and took a 33-32 lead into halftime.

Deegan and Victoria Vine made back-to-back 3-pointers late in the third quarter as part of a 10-4 run to give Eckerd a four-point lead heading into the final 10 minutes.

Eckerd stayed on top the rest of the way, getting key baskets in important moments when Florida Southern was poised to retake the lead and finishing in a fashion worthy of a conference champion.

Deegan and Folsom both carried much of the offense for the Tritons with 21 points each.  Folsom went 10-of-14 from the floor while Deegan was 8-of-13 with five 3-pointers.

Perhaps more importantly, Eckerd held FSC to 37.9 percent shooting - a stark contrast to the 62 percent that the Mocs shot in the teams' first meeting in January.

"We controlled interior much better [than the first time]," Honsinger said.  "Our posts did a great job defending one-on-one.  We really picked up our defense in the second half."

The win matched the program record for the most in a season, tying the mark set in 2014-15.  Eckerd's 16 conference wins is also the most for any school in SSC history.

The Tritons will host the first round of the Sunshine State Conference tournament on Wednesday at 5:30 PM against eighth-seeded Lynn University.  Eckerd won both regular-season matchups against the Fighting Knights.