Florida Tech Women Drop Conference Opener at Eckerd

The Florida Tech women never got their offense going Wednesday at Eckerd, as their slow start doomed them in a 65-53 loss, to open the Sunshine State Conference schedule. The Panthers trailed from the outset in this one, turning the ball over 11 times in the first half and hitting just 15-of-60 shots from the field in the contest.

“Eckerd returns a bunch of juniors and seniors. Three starters are from last year and the first three kids off the bench are from last years’ team,” said Florida Tech coach John Reynolds in his post-game interview with Paul Van Scott. “We knew we’d be playing a team that was a month and a half ahead of us preparation wise."

The Panthers (2-1, 0-1 SSC) did just enough in the first quarter to stay afloat. They shot 7-of-12 from the field and got six points from Tanease Richardson. Delise Williams hit a shot at the buzzer and concluding a 6-0 run by the Panthers to get within three at 18-15. Seven Panther turnovers were the difference in the quarter.

Florida Tech fought their way through the second quarter and had to withstand a 5-0 run early in the quarter and 6-0 toward the end of the quarter. Meanwhile, the Panthers hadn’t scored since the 5:01 mark in the quarter.

With 2.7 seconds left, Florida Tech’s Shequana Harris hit two free-throws to close within six, at 30-24 and Michaela Gelbaugh stole the inbounds pass with two seconds left and let a prayer fly from half-court that hit nothing but the bottom of the net.

With that, the Panthers were two-for-two on buzzer-beaters and trailed 30-27 at the half. Richardson finished the first half with eight points, Williams had seven and Gelbaugh, contributed five.

Things started slipping away from the Panthers in the third quarter, as they were down 11 two different times and were only able to get as close as 43-37, helped by some late free-throws. They were outscored 17-14 in the quarter and trailed 47-41 at the end of three.

Neither team scored for the first 2:57 of the fourth quarter, but the Tritons got things going eventually and outscored the Panthers 18-12 in the quarter. The Panthers never posed much of a threat in the late stages.

“I don’t think we got a real good overall effort tonight,” said Reynolds. “We went into the locker room down three at the half and we scored five points in the last 2.7 seconds, to get it to three. There was really no change in our discipline and our execution in the second half, I thought we got out toughed.”

Harris and Richardson both finished with 17 points to lead the Panthers. Richardson added 10 rebounds, giving her a double-double.

For more info: Florida Tech @ Eckerd Box Score

Reynolds did not pull any punches, vowing that changes would be made, ahead of the next game. “Our defense was horrendous tonight,” he said. Unless we get that improved, we’re gonna have problems. We had three or four kids that played tonight that had no motivation and no sense of urgency. Maybe that’s on me, but I know this, we’ll have some changes by Saturday to get ready for that game.”

The Panthers will try to rebound when they take on the Barry Buccaneers in a conference game at the Clemente Center. The game will get underway at 5:30 p.m.

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