JACKSON, Tenn. - The Eckerd women's basketball team got its revenge over Florida Southern when it mattered the most as the Tritons rallied past the Moccasins, 69-64, in the first round of the NCAA South Regional Tournament Friday night at Fred Delay Gymnasium.
The Mocs opened the game aggressively, with a 12-2 run over the opening six minutes. The teams then traded baskets the rest of the frame as FSC took a 23-13 advantage to end the first.
EC opened the second quarter with five consecutive points to trail by five. The Mocs stretch back out to a 10-point advantage a minute later. However, EC ended the half on a 14-7 run to pull within three, 35-32, at intermission.
The Tritons jumped out with a 7-1 stretch over the first three minutes of the third stanza to take a 39-36 lead. EC held a one-possession lead over the next three minutes before a Whitney Jacob layup tied the game at 45-45 with 3:07 remaining. However, back-to-back layups gave the Tritons a 49-45 lead to end the third.
EC pushed in front by five early in the final quarter, but FSC used a 5-0 run to even the score at 59-59 at the 2:18 mark. A Nicole Scales layup put Eckerd back in front, and a triple by Sofia Persson with 1:15 left sealed the deal, giving the Tritons a five-point lead, and EC made its free throws down the stretch for the victory.
HOW IT ENDED
FINAL: No. 21 Eckerd 69, Florida Southern 64
RECORDS: Eckerd 21-4, Florida Southern 20-10
NOTES AND NUMBERS
- Persson led Eckerd offensively with 21 points, three shy of her career-high. Hannah Wentworth and Cirkeline Rimdal rounded out the double-figure scorers with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
- Wentworth and Scales made their first career starts.
- Persson scored 13 of Eckerd's 20 points in the fourth quarter.
- Maya Price led EC on the boards with nine.
- Lauryn Vieira tied her career-high with 10 assists.
- Eckerd collected its first victory of the season over Florida Southern as the Mocs won the first three meetings.
- The victory is just Eckerd's second NCAA South Regional win. The first came in 2017 over Lee (Tenn.).
- Eckerd shot 48.0 percent from the floor and 47.1 percent from deep.
QUOTABLE
PRESS CONFERENCE
"I'm extremely proud of our team. We struggled with this team throughout the regular season, and it was really good for our team to pick up the win over them tonight," said head coach Paul Honsinger '98.
"We've been working really hard all week to be tougher, rebound more, and to play together, and we did that really well tonight. We stayed really poised and grinded out the win," said Maya Price.
UP NEXT
Eckerd faces top-seeded No. 1 Union (Tenn.) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament tomorrow at 8:30 PM.
