Strong Second Half Carries Tampa Women to Victory over FIT

Gracie Doane - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography

The Florida Tech Women’s Basketball team fell to Tampa 66-53 Saturday, in a Sunshine State Conference tilt. Spartans’ senior Elena de Alfredo, hit seven of her 13 shots, including two three-pointers, leading the home team with 19 points.

The first half was nip-and-tuck, with each team scoring 11 points in the first quarter. Back-to-back threes by de Alfredo late in the first quarter gave the Spartans an 11-8 lead, but Gracie Doane answered late for the Panthers, tying things up.

Doane finished with 11 points, including three of eight from beyond the arc. She was the only Florida Tech player in double figures on this day.

DeLise Williams started the second quarter with a three for the Panthers, giving them a 14-13 lead, but de Alfredo answered with another bucket and she had 12 of Tampa’s 15 points early. The Panthers hit a bit of a lull, going scoreless for 3:38, but they hung tough and trailed 22-21. Julie McCarthy hit a shot for the Panthers moments later and they were back on top 23-22, with three minutes to go in the quarter.

Doane hit a three late in the quarter and Shequana Harris got a steal and a layup at the other end, giving the Panthers a 28-25 lead with about a minute left. Just when the Panthers looked poised to build a lead into halftime, de Alfredo hit another three to tie things up again.

After Florida Tech grabbed a 30-28 lead, Teresa Kucera hit one from downtown, putting Tampa up 31-30 with 10 seconds left and they took that miniscule lead into the locker room. That ended a first half that saw 10 lead changes and five ties.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, the third quarter started with the team stuck in neutral. They watched the Spartans reel of 12 straight points, stretching the lead to 43-30. Florida Tech did not find the bottom of the net until Julie McCarthy finally hit a shot with 1:29 left. Kareese Johnson’s three, helped the Panthers close the quarter on a 5-0 run.

“They executed and we lost them in transition in the first half, but in the second half, that was nothing except feeling sorry for yourself,” said Panthers coach John Reynolds, in his postgame interview with Paul Van Scott.

Shequana Harris - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography
Harris started the fourth quarter with a layup, extending the run to seven and closing the gap to 43-37. That was as close as the visitors would get though, because Griffin Dempsey hit a three at the other end for Tampa, getting the lead back to nine.

“She’s been sick this week,” said Reynolds of Harris. “She played a little better today, but you could see she wasn’t at a hundred percent.”

Johnson would later hit another three for Florida Tech, making it a 48-40 contest, but as they did all night, Tampa had an answer. They went on a 6-0 run that saw the Panthers go scoreless for 3:33.

Tampa (6-3, 2-1 SSC) did have drought late that went 3:04 without a field goal, but they had built up enough of a lead to withstand that. Dempsey’s three with 3:07 left, made it 57-44 and pretty much sealed the game.

Reynolds acknowledged that many of the statistics were even, but he put this loss squarely on his team. “I thought leadership was non-existent,” he said. “We didn’t have a kid on the floor that would lead us, or make a play to get us going.”

For more info: Florida Tech @ Tampa Box Score

The Panthers (6-3, 2-3 SSC) shot 38 percent in the first half and 35 percent in the second half, while Tampa shot 52.2 in the first half and 35.7 in the second.

Things don’t get any easier for the Panthers next week, as they travel to West Palm Beach for the PBA Holiday Classic on Sunday and Monday. They will play Bellarmine at 1:30 p.m. Sunday and Shaw at 12:30 p.m. Monday.

“Bellarmine is number five in the country and that’s a solid basketball team,” said Reynolds. “Shaw was top 25 team to start, but has taken a couple losses. The schedule is perfect to get us ready to play really solid basketball in January, I have no problems playing this type of schedule.”


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