MELBOURNE, Fla. - Florida Southern College women's basketball won on the road to defeat Florida Tech 72-48 in Sunshine State Conference action on Saturday afternoon. The Mocs started out hot and never let up, leading the entirety of the game in Clemente Center.
With the win, Mocs improved to 7-2 on the year and 3-1 in the SSC, while the Panthers fell to 1-5 and 0-4 in the conference.
For the first time this season, every Moc scored in the win as three scored in double-digits, with senior
Domenica Zamora leading the way with 16 points. Following Zamora was sophomore
Anna Denes with 11 points and freshman
Sydney Gomes with 10 points from the bench.
Zamora went 6-for-9 from the field, scoring seven in just the first half to go 3-for-4 in the paint and 1-for-2 from beyond the arch. Defensively,
Arielle Dabu and Denes led FSC coming down with eight boards apiece.
Florida Tech saw just two in double-digit scoring as Sarah Liberatore led with 14 points followed by Tai Roberts with 12 points respectfully.
Florida Southern earned an early 4-0 lead within the first three minutes until Liberatore cut that lead to just one with a 3-point basket to make it 4-3 with 6:19 on the clock. Zamora answered back for FSC with a 3-pointer of her own to increase the Mocs lead and put pressure on the Panthers' defense.
The one-point difference was the smallest margin between the two teams as Southern went on a run to the end of the quarter with an 11-point lead.
To start the second quarter the Panthers tried to cut the double-digit lead that the Mocs had during the first, but FSC put the game out of reach early when four different Mocs scored, going on a 10-point run to make it 30-11. Graduate student
Ashley Shell, junior
Maria Llorente, and sophomores Denes and
Marissa Jenike contributed to the Mocs early lead.
The Mocs went into the locker up 40-16 after Zamora went on a run of her own scoring nine in the final two minutes.
After halftime, the Mocs momentum continued to put pressure on Florida Tech giving FSC the biggest lead of the game when freshman
Amari Jackson hit a jumper at 3:16 to make it a 30-point game with a 54-24 score. Southern continued to put the game out of reach for FIT as freshman
Reagan White hit a 3-pointer going into the final quarter with a 60-31 lead.
Freshman
Na'Haviya Paxton was fouled after stepping in and made it a 30-point game for the second time. FSC continued to keep a 30-point lead until the last one came from a 3-point jumper from sophomore
Arriyana Bracero that ended the Mocs scoring. The Panthers went on a run late in the fourth but the damage was already done as FSC takes another conference win on the road.
UP NEXT
Florida Southern steps out of conference play to compete in the annual Mocs Christmas Classic on Friday and Saturday. The Mocs will host Truman State on Friday at 2:00 p.m. with Drury on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. in Jenkins Field house.
