ST. PETERSBURG -- The Eckerd women's basketball team earned its fifth straight victory on Wednesday night, defeating the visiting Tampa Spartans by a score of 69-56 inside the McArthur Center.
Tampa started strong with the game's first six points after connecting on its first three shot attempts. Eckerd earned its first lead after seeing four straight threes go in, two coming from
Kailyn Terrell, but the Spartans closed the quarter on a 12-2 run to take a 21-14 lead into the second period. After the visitors saw their margin grow to as many as eight early on, a
Jaylen Ostenson three-pointer around the halfway mark cut the deficit to just two at 27-25.
Emma Egan's layup with three minutes remaining in the half regained the lead for the Tritons before later closing out the quarter with the final eight points to take a 38-33 advantage into the break. Five consecutive points from Egan put the team up 35-33 prior to a late three by
Lisa Michaelsen. Eckerd hit nine triples in the first half.
In the third, Tampa again used an early surge to build momentum, eventually taking back the lead four minutes in at 41-40. The cushion for the Spartans reached as high as five in the frame, but the Tritons saw the final four points of the quarter come from Egan to cut the gap down to just a point at 47-46 with one period left to play. The two teams exchanged baskets to begin the fourth, followed by a go-ahead three-pointer from
Savannah Borowicz to move Eckerd in front at 52-49. The Tritons never lost the lead the rest of the way, out-scoring Tampa 23-9 through the final 10 minutes. A triple from Egan at 2:38 extended the lead out to nine before six straight points from
Ieva Korzane and a couple of free throws moved it out to the final differential of 13. The Tritons shot 70 percent in the fourth and held the Spartans to just two made shots and 14 percent shooting the ball.
Egan notched her fourth straight double-double and led the team with 20 points and 14 rebounds on 8-13 shooting. Korzane, Michaelsen, and
Sarah Racaud all contributed nine apiece, while Michaelsen also added two blocks and five boards.
The Tritons improve to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the SSC with the win. The team will continue its home stand against Lynn on Saturday.
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