Fire, Bobcats Advance to TSC Women’s Basketball Final
LAKELAND, Fla.—The 25
th straight win for the top seeded Southeastern University Fire, and an upset by St. Thomas has set the 2017 Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship.
Southeastern cruised to an 84-49 win over Florida Memorial in the first semifinal. A three pointer from FMU guard Danielle Bailey with 7:08 to go in the first was the last field goal the Lions successfully converted until the 4:14 mark in the second quarter.
During that stretch of 12:54, the Fire outscored the Lions 29-0 and recorded 21 consecutive defensive stops to take a 37-5 lead.
"I feel like Florida Memorial came out and tried to do some different things against us, but our girls made a couple of adjustments and executed really well," shared Head Coach
Tim Hays.
Junior guard
Ana Richter found her offensive rhythm early, scoring 10 of her 15 points in the first half. Richter finished leading all scorers while totaling three assists and three steals.
SEU took a 46-11 lead over FMU into halftime. Southeastern held Florida Memorial to 12.9% shooting from the field (4-31), including 11.8% from behind the arc (2-17), and forced 13 turnovers in the half.
The Lions were unable to cut the deficit to any less than 32 in the second half.
St. Thomas rallied from a nine-point first quarter deficit to outscore Keiser 44-21 over the second and third quarters to come away with a 74-67 win.
Desanta' Franklin-Jordan led all players with 20 points and
Supavadee Kunchuan added 15 points with a team-highs of nine rebounds and five assists.
Katie Rienas scored 13 points and pulled down six rebounds.
Emily May scored 13 points and Samata Auguste added 11 points as all five starters scored in double figures.
The Bobcats had a strong defensive night scoring 27 points off 25 turnovers while holding the Seahawks to 34% shooting from the field.
Southeastern faces St. Thomas Saturday at 6 p.m. for the championship. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NAIA Division II National Championship.