COLUMBUS, Ga. -- Emma Egan and
Ieva Korzane combined for 41 of the team's 62 points Wednesday night to help lead the Tritons women's basketball team to a 62-59 road win over the No. 18 ranked Columbus State Cougars.
Nearly two-and-a-half minutes passed before the game's first bucket as the two teams played to a low-scoring first five minutes of the opening frame.
Lisa Michaelsen's made three broke a 4-4 tie around the halfway point for the Tritons' first lead, and
Hekla Nokkvadottir's basket gave the team a 9-4 advantage with 3:42 remaining. Columbus State closed out the final minutes with a 13-3 run to bring a 17-12 lead into the second quarter. The Cougars shot just 28 percent in the first 10 minutes of action compared to Eckerd's 45 percent mark, but had 11 more attempts from the floor and one additional make. The two teams played to a closely-fought second period, with CSU notching a 13-12 advantage to take a 30-24 cushion into the break. The Tritons erased a 12-point deficit in the frame with an 8-2 scoring run in the final three minutes.
It was all Eckerd in the third quarter, out-scoring Columbus State 22-8 to move out in front by eight with just 10 minutes left to play. Egan's jumper at the 5:24 mark gave the team its first lead of the second half at a score of 36-34, while Korzane's jumper two minutes later capped off an 8-0 spurt that spanned over nearly five minutes.
Kailyn Terrell's layup on the team's final possession of the period gave the Tritons their largest lead of the game at 46-38.
Eckerd held a multi-possession advantage through the first five minutes of the fourth quarter until a three-pointer brought the Cougars within two at 49-47. The Tritons answered with buckets from Egan and Korzane, but Columbus State fought back and regained its first lead of the period at 55-54 with 2:02 to go. The two teams traded successful possessions and found themselves deadlocked at 57 with less than a minute showing on the clock. The Cougars went ahead with a layup, but Egan converted a three-point play with just 12 seconds remaining to put the Tritons up 60-59. Eckerd forced a turnover and Korzane sank a pair of free throws to give the team the ranked road victory.
Egan led the way with 21 points on over 50 percent shooting to go with nine rebounds, while Korzane added 20 on 8-11 shooting. As a team, the Tritons held the Cougars to just 33 percent from the floor and 21 percent from behind the arc.
The Tritons improve to 1-2 and will open SSC play on Saturday at Barry.
