McCarthy Puts Up Double-Double on Senior Day

Julie McCarthy - Photo credit: James Ragan

Julie McCarthy scored 13 points and pulled down 11 rebounds Saturday, in her final regular season game with the Panthers, helping Florida Tech secure a 56-46 victory over Palm Beach Atlantic and finish the regular season on a winning note.

“Obviously, there was no hangover for Julie with the corrective measures we took on Wednesday,” said Florida Tech coach John Reynolds. Give her credit for being a good teammate, I’m proud of her.”

“This group of kids has faced all kinds of adversity throughout the year, as much as any team I’ve ever coached,” he continued. “Today what we did was battle ourselves back to be 13-13. We got back to .500… and I thought that was the goal.”

Florida Tech (13-13, 8-10 SSC) dominated the first quarter, leading 17-8 and played well in the second quarter, getting three pointers from Markeema Crawford and Amanda Allen early. DeLise Williams made her defense pay off after a steal, she dished to Allen, who hit another three, giving Florida Tech a 33-18 lead, with 1:49 left in the quarter.

Nikkira Brown answered with a three of her own, cutting the lead to 12. Free-throws on consecutive trips cut it to 33-24 and then with 0.1 showing on the clock, Hannah Grim was fouled on her three-point shot and made the free-throw, giving the Sailfish an 8-0 run to end the half and the Panthers lead was five at the break, 33-28.

Michaela Gelbaugh - Credit: James Ragan
The third quarter started well for the Panthers, who built their lead back to 10, 41-31 with 5:26 to go. PBA cut it to 43-37, before Michaela Gelbaugh drained a three with 1:58 to go in the quarter, expanding the lead to nine. Grimm answered with another three before the quarter expired and it was a 46-40 game.

To say the Panthers struggled in the fourth quarter, would be putting it mildly. They shot 4-of-12 (33.3 percent and scored 10 points. There was a stretch when the team turned the ball over on five of six possessions.

“We were sloppy down the stretch,” said Reynolds. “For three and a half quarters we got solid play, but we could never stretch our lead. The final score was a 10-point game, but it never felt like a 10-point game.”

Luckily, Palm Beach Atlantic struggled more, going 0-for-10 from the field and scoring just six points in the quarter, all on free-throws.

For more info: Palm Beach Atlantic @ Florida Tech Box Score

Crawford finished with 11 points and freshman Gudlau Juliusdottir added 10 for the Panthers. Reynolds called Juliusdottir the biggest surprise of the year. “That kids improved every game, she so coachable,” he said. “She plays as hard at every practice as she does in the games.”

He also spoke highly of outgoing senior Ashle Thompson, who scored a career-high 12 points Wednesday, before contributing on the boards Saturday, with three defensive rebounds.

“Ashle has been a role player her whole career and today she played her role,” he said. “She’s been on this team for four years because she’s been able to do that, where a lot of kids can’t. They don’t stick it out, they lose their commitment. I was as happy for her on Wednesday, as I’ve ever been for any player.”

Thompson, McCarthy and the other seniors are not done yet. Florida Tech is the sixth-seed in the Sunshine State Conference tournament. They will play Rollins on Wednesday, March 1, at 5:30 p.m. The game will be played in Winter Park.



This blog is an extension of our website - Sportslowdown.com
Follow us on Twitter @sports_lowdown

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Manatees’ Offensive Struggles Continue Against Lakeland

Image
Junior Rincon The Brevard County Manatees were hoping a return to Space Coast Stadium on Tuesday, would be the turning point for what was a 1-7 road trip. Unfortunately, the ‘Tees offensive struggles continued in a 3-0 loss to the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Offensively, Brevard County (3-16) managed just four hits in the game, but did hit some balls hard. Starting pitcher Eric Hanhold was plagued by a high pitch count early, forcing him out of the game after four innings. He threw 83 pitches, 50 for strikes. “It wasn’t Hanhold’s usual outing,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “Usually, he’s getting ahead and tonight he had to work himself out of some jams, working behind and walking a couple guys, that’s what happens.”  Ayrault was not overly concerned with the amount of pitches his starters are throwing early, repeating something he said last week about the starters being on a pitch count until June. He expanded a bit on that after the game on Tuesday. “We need to at
Read more

Flagler Scoring Spree Sinks Panthers

Image
Nick Capra - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech baseball team dropped their second game of the season on Wednesday, as Flagler came up with 11 runs in last four innings, en route to a 14-5 victory. Florida Tech (6-2) got some early offense with two runs in the bottom of the first against Flagler starter Louis Pugliese. John Sternagel singled to lead off the inning and later scored on an error. Daniel Szpik grounded out, scoring Reid Neal , who singled earlier in the inning. That gave Florida Tech an early 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first. The lead was short-lived, as the Saints (7-1) came back with two more runs in the top of the second, courtesy of a Dylan Jones two-run double against Panthers starter Grant Willcoxon . That gave the visitors a 3-2 advantage. The Panthers tied things up in the bottom of the frame, thanks to a Nick Capra homer to lead things off. Zac Orchard then walked and stole second. He moved to third one out later, o
Read more

Eagles Soar over FIT in Men’s Hoops

Image
Photo credit: James Ragan Photography It was a tough day at the office for the Florida Tech Panthers on Saturday, as they dropped a 101-49 decision to Division I power Florida Gulf Coast, in Fort Myers. This was essentially an exhibition for the Panthers, who were coming off a tough overtime loss at Lynn on Friday night and didn’t even arrive at their hotel until 1:30 Saturday morning. Panthers coach Billy Mims didn’t use the late arrival as an excuse and his team certainly didn’t play tired to start the game. They came out on a 1-0 run, with Patrick Anderson and Sam Daniel knocking down a couple early three-pointers. “We opened up man-to-man, toe-to-toe with them we played good D and I thought we executed well,” Mims said. The Panthers went up 12-4 with 4:35 gone in the half and the Eagles fought back, to take a 16-15 lead. They stretched it to 20-15 with 11:25 to go and Daniel cut it back to two, with another three-point bucket. Robert Booth got the Panthers
Read more