ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The No. 21 Eckerd women's basketball team used a second-quarter surge to pull away from Lynn, 59-49, Saturday afternoon at the McArthur Center.
The Tritons and Fighting Knights played a tight contest in the first period, and though the Tritons led for the entire quarter, they began the second with a slim three-point lead as EC's season-long stellar defense was tested early.
Eckerd found its rhythm in the second frame, as the Tritons opened the quarter with a 13-0 run and held the Fighting Knights to just five points on 1-for-11 shooting as EC led 34-16 at the half.
LU began the third period on a 10-4 run, nearly trimming EC's lead to single digits, 38-26. However, the Tritons answered with a pair of 3-pointers from Sofia Persson and Nicole Scales with three minutes left in the third, followed by a fast break layup by Hannah Wentworth to cap off a 7-0 run to end the quarter, extending the EC lead to 20 points, 46-26.
LU stormed back with a 15-6 run to end the game, reducing Eckerd's lead to 10 points, 59-49, as the Tritons earned their 12th win of the season.
HOW IT ENDED
FINAL: No. 21 Eckerd 59, Lynn 49
RECORDS: Eckerd 12-1 (8-3 SSC); Lynn 6-9 (4-7 SSC)
NOTES AND NUMBERS
- Two Tritons scored double figures: Maya Price (18) and Scales (10).
- Price's 18 points give her nine games this season with double-digit scoring efforts.
- Price's scoring effort pushes her season average to 14.2 points per game, tied for fifth in the SSC.
- Lauryn Vieira's five assists give her eight games this season with five or more, as her 5.5 assists average rank second in the SSC.
- Vieira also grabbed a career-high five steals, which are the most by a Triton since Kacie Juday grabbed six also against Lynn on February 3, 2018.
- EC's defense held LU to just 29.4 percent shooting from the field, including 2-for-14 from beyond the arc.
- Eckerd earns the series sweep of Lynn for the third straight season.
- Persson grabbed nine rebounds while Vieira added seven.
QUOTABLE
"The aim was to be bigger in the post, have more of an impact, do the early work on defense, and improve upon our first game against Lynn," said Price, following an 18-point scoring effort.
"Our defensive effort was strong in the first half, and that carried us today," said head coach Paul Honsinger '98. "I thought the team did a good job getting the ball inside where we had an advantage, and Maya [Price] finished great."
UP NEXT
Eckerd will play at Saint Leo for the first game of a two-game road trip on Wednesday at 5:30 PM.
