ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Florida Southern College women's basketball team gave it all they had in a hard fight till the end in the semifinal of the Sunshine State Conference tournament on Thursday evening. The Moccasins (16-13, 8-12 SSC) battled against the Tritons (18-11, 11-9 SSC) falling in a close 73-65 final.
FSC had three finish in double figures with
Anna Denes leading the way with 18 points, followed by
Domenica Zamora with 12 and
Sydney Gomes with 10. Eckerd also had three score in double digits as the 2024 SSC Player of the Year Lauryn Vieira led the night with 29 points.
Eckerd put up the first points of the game scoring on a layup. Denes answered back with a jumper to tie it up 2-2 just over two minutes into the game. A 3-pointer gave the Tritons back the advantage, as Zamora was sent to the charity line sinking both free throws to come within one of Eckerd's 5-4 lead.
Eckerd was sent to the line going 1-for-2, giving FSC an opportunity as Zamora scored with a driving layup to tie the game for the second time. The Tritons continued to put on the pressure to take a two-point lead until
Arielle Dabu sank the first 3-pointer of the game to give FSC the first lead of the night.
The first quarter ended with the Mocs up as Dabu hit both free throws to take the second lead of the game, 11-10.
In the second quarter, the Mocs struggled to maintain the lead as the Tritons went on a 20-11 run and headed into halftime with a 30-22 lead.
Eckerd was able to increase its lead to 15 in three different opportunities, but the Mocs started to cut into the Tritons lead by going on a 7-0 run with a Zamora layup and
Dakota Daniello making back-to-back shots with a jumper and 3-pointer to finish the third quarter down 51-45.
In the fourth, Gomes cut the deficit down to five with a 3-pointer early. Denes' layup also kept the lead to just five points, but a 6-0 run from Eckerd allowed the Tritons to get back out to an 11-point advantage. FSC continued to put on the pressure as a Gomes layup put the Mocs down by only four making the game seem within reach with just under a minute remaining. Unfortunately, the Tritons kept the momentum sending them to the line as they went 6-for-10 from the line to seal the win and advance to the SSC championship game where they will face the 2nd-seed Tampa Spartans.
