#3 Tampa Upsets #2 Tech in Quarterfinals of SSC Womens Basketball Tournament
Boca Raton, Fla. — The #2 seed Florida Tech Panthers (23-6) falls to #3 The University of Tampa Spartans (22-7) 66-58 at the DeHoernle Center in the
quarterfinals of the Sunshine State Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament.
In the first game of the day, senior Danielle Vaughn (Tallahassee, Fla.), put up her second highest performance of the season, scoring 19 points. Vaughn
went 7-for-14 from the field and a flawless 3-for-3 from the line. Her late game treys gave Tech the drive to push for the lead, unfortunately they came up
short.
“We had a tough time running our offense and taking too much time bringing the ball down the court,” said Vaughn.
Fellow senior Jennifer Tamilio (Boston, Mass.), the SSS Player of the Year, notched eleven points, five assists and four steals.
“It was hard to get into a flow… we weren’t feeling our shots, and we were rushing them,” said Tamilio. “ We were anxious today.”
Defensively, Kristi Harrell (Melbourne, Fla.) led Tech with five rebounds and added six points all from behind the arc.
“I don’t think our team understands how to react when teams make a run,” said the senior captain Harrell. “That’s something we have to fix.”
Despite Florida Tech outscoring the Spartans in the second half by two points 39-to-37, Tampa prevailed with an final eight point lead after outscoring
them by ten in the first half 29-19.
Tech managed a late game surge on the Tampa with around two minutes left, Panthers’ head coach John Reynolds, SSC Coach of the Year, began the fouling
method to conserve time on the clock. Tampa had a rough time at the line all night finishing with 58% free throw percentage making only 24-of-41 from the
charity stripe.
The Panthers’ were not able to get the breaks in fouls and concluded the loss going 10-for-12 from the line.
“I’ll congratulate Tampa because they beat us three times this year…in the first two minutes of the game, we looked great, and in the last two minutes, we
looked good,” said Reynolds. “I’m not sure what happened in those middle 36 minutes. I’ll have to go back and watch the tape and see what we could have
changed.”
Spartans’ junior DeShaydia Mackey (Plant City, Fla.) helped her team advance to the championship game tomorrow leading all scorers with 21 points.
“We thought our offense would come if we just focused on our defense,” stated Mackey. “We gave up some baskets at the end of the game, but for the most
part, I though our defense was good.”
Tampa had two other players notch double figures including Sheena Walton (Largo, Fla.), All SSC First Team member, and Ericka Woodard (Valrico, Fla.)
combining for 25 points. Walton finished with lone double double scoring 15 points while pulling down 11 boards. She also added three assists and two
blocks.
Woodard had seven rebounds and ten points while Alexa Kane (Orlando, Fla.), All SSC Second Team member, chipped in nine points and seven boards.
“We knew they would come out and give it everything, but we wanted to stay composed under pressure,” said Woodard. “I think we did that.”
Tampa out-hustled Florida Tech inside scoring 30 of their points in the paint in comparison to the crimson and gray’s 16 scored inside. Despite Tech
gaining 18 of their points from the bench to Tampa’s six they were unable to get in a rhythm together to shut down the red, yellow and black’s starting
five.
With Tampa ahead by fourteen at 3:55, Vaughn brought it to 12 with a back door lay-up on a smooth pass down the chute by junior Tenisha Chase (Upper
Marlboro, Md.). Tampa immediately answered back after Walton backed up Mackey by an offense board from Kane.
Vaughn then launched one of two treys to shorten the gap by eight points at 1:36 left on the game clock.
The foul fest then began by the Panthers sending Tampa to the charity stripe 13 times until the buzzer sounded. Mackey made three while Kane and Woodard
each made two; Tech could not capitalize on the poor free throw shooting.
Tamilio was fouled on one of her missed treys and made two out of three from the line. These would be the last points Tech would make, while Woodard hit
both her final free shots in the last second of the game.
#3 Tampa will face #1 Rollins in the championship game tomorrow 1:00 p.m. The game will be televised live via Sun Sports. Also the NCAA DII Women’s
Basketball selection show will take place on http://www.ncaasports.com/dii at 10:30 p.m. Florida Tech
which was ranked 4th in the NCAA II South Region prior to the tournament is
still on of the ten teams in contention for the post-season bid.
Newspaper Box Score
Tampa vs Florida Tech
03/03/04 12:00 pm at Boca Raton, Fla. (de Hoernle Center)
At Boca Raton, Fla. (de Hoernle Center)
TAMPA 66, FLORIDA TECH 58
TAMPA (22-7)
MACKEY, DeShaydia 6-11 7-8 21; WALTON, Sheena 5-10 5-11 15; WOODARD, Erica
3-10 4-5 10; KANE, Alexa 2-8 5-8 9; GUIU, Angela 1-4 2-3 5; RIDLEY, Brittany
2-5 0-4 5; TAYLOR, Kym 0-0 1-2 1; TAYLOR, Lindsey 0-0 0-0 0; COOK, Tiara 0-0
0-0 0. Totals 19-48 24-41 66.
FLORIDA TECH (23-6)
VAUGHN, Danielle 7-14 3-3 19; TAMILIO, Jennifer 3-12 4-5 11; HEMINGER,
Kristin 2-7 1-2 7; HARRELL, Kristi 2-9 0-0 6; RICHARDSON, McKena 1-7 2-2 4;
CRIMI, Kassie 2-4 0-0 4; MUNS, Amanda 1-2 0-0 3; FEQUIERE, Danise 1-2 0-0 2;
JONES, Sabrina 1-2 0-0 2; RUSSELL, Casselle 0-0 0-0 0; McCARTNEY, Megan 0-0
0-0 0; CHASE, Tenisha 0-1 0-0 0; GREENE, Lindsay 0-0 0-0 0; JOHNSON, Shante
0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-61 10-12 58.
Tampa……………………. 29 37 – 66
Florida Tech……………… 19 39 – 58
3-point goals–Tampa 4-10 (MACKEY, DeShaydia 2-4; GUIU, Angela 1-4; RIDLEY,
Brittany 1-1; KANE, Alexa 0-1), Florida Tech 8-24 (HARRELL, Kristi 2-6;
HEMINGER, Kristin 2-5; VAUGHN, Danielle 2-5; TAMILIO, Jennifer 1-6; MUNS,
Amanda 1-2). Fouled out–Tampa-None, Florida Tech-HEMINGER, Kristin.
Rebounds–Tampa 45 (WALTON, Sheena 11), Florida Tech 36 (HARRELL, Kristi 5).
Assists–Tampa 11 (WALTON, Sheena 3; MACKEY, DeShaydia 3), Florida Tech 14
(TAMILIO, Jennifer 5; RICHARDSON, McKena 5). Total fouls–Tampa 13, Florida
Tech 26. Technical fouls–Tampa-None, Florida Tech-None. A-123
ID-534475
