Women's Basketball Falls to #3 Tampa in SSC Semifinal

TAMPA, Fla. - The Florida Southern College women's basketball team fell in the Sunshine State College semifinals to the first-seed No. 3 University of Tampa 77-61 on Thursday evening.

Florida Southern moves to 15-14 overall while Tampa is 29-1 after the win.

Graduate student Ashley Shell led the way with 17 points and eight rebounds while sophomore Anna Denes finished with 15 points and eight rebounds.

Shell opened up the scoring for the Mocs with a layup followed by a 3-pointer from Denes down the middle to give FSC an early 5-0 lead. The Spartans shortly hit a layup to close the gap 5-2. The Mocs' hot start continued as senior Domenica Zamora increased Florida Southern's lead to six with a 3-point jumper. After a quick Spartan response, Denes drained her second three of the night to reclaim the lead, the Moccasins ahead 11-8. 

Denes showed her defensive ability with a steal and then went to the hoop where freshman Sydney Gomes found sophomore Arielle Dabu hitting a layup to increase the Mocs lead to 13-8 before the first media timeout at 4:08. 

Tampa sank a pair of free throws, but Shell answered back with a layup, as the Mocs went up 16-12. Zamora hit a second-chance three from the right corner to make it an 18-13 ballgame with just under two minutes of play in the quarter.

The Spartans went on a 6-0 run that tied the game 18-18 to end the first quarter. 

The first minute of action in the second frame was a back-and-forth battle between the Mocs and Spartans, but Tampa hit a shot from beyond the arc that kick-started a 20-to-4 run that finished out the first half with a 40-25 Spartan advantage going into the locker room. 

Florida Southern came out of halftime looking to close in on Tampa, but the Spartans continued the momentum from the first half gaining a 21-point lead over the Mocs. Shell and sophomore Arriyana Bracero scored a combined 13 points, and in the final minute freshman Na'Haviya Paxton hit a second-chance layup to end the quarter 59-40 with Tampa in the lead. 

The final quarter was a battle for the Moccasins as they tried to cut the Spartan's lead with a 9-0 run allowing the Mocs to come within 15 again. However, the strong second quarter for Tampa was too much to fight back from as Florida Southern fell in the semifinal 77-61. 

First-year head coach Megan Dzikas '12 closes out her inaugural year with lots to look forward to and gain from her first season at the helm of the Florida Southern College women's basketball program. The Mocs' regular season highlights included Zamora earning SSC Defensive Player of the Week, and Shell notching a career-high 25 points in the season opener before scoring her 900th career point on senior night. Florida Southern, as the fifth seed, upset the fourth-seed Nova Southeastern in the quarterfinals to advance to the SSC semifinal. 
 
Florida Southern will await the NCAA Division II selection show slated for March 5 at 10:30 p.m. (ET) on www.ncaa.com.
 
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