Panthers Take Mocs in the Quarterfinals of the 2007 SSC Womens Basketball Tournament

BOCA RATON, Fla. — The #2 seeded Florida Tech Panthers (23-5) scored their season high en route to an 89-64 defeat of the #7 seeded Florida Southern
Moccasins (11-7) in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Sunshine State Conference Tournament at the deHoernle Center on the campus of host Lynn University.

Tech’s duo of SSC Player of the Year senior Jen Tamilio (Boston, Mass.) and junior McKena Richardson (Quartz Hill, Cal.) each notched a game high 20 points
to help lift Tech to a 25 point advantage at the final buzzer. Tamilio hit four-for-six from behind the arc.

Richardson stated that her reasoning behind the big game was the fact that she finally put her contacts in, but in reality she felt her confidence kick in
and had a lot of support from her teammates.

I am honored to be here and am enjoying the experience at my first SSC Tournament,” stated Tech’s Richardson. “I am just thankful for the opportunity to be
here and to be coached by such a great man in John Reynolds who has over 20 years of a winning tradition.”

Panther junior Kristin Heminger (Merritt Island, Fla.) also put up big numbers for the crimson and gray hoopsters finishing with 16 points, all of which,
were scored in the second half. Heminger hit a flawless 5-for-5 from the charity stripe, 1-for-1 from behind the arc and 5-for-7 from the field and pulled
down five rebounds to boot.

Three Mocs each tallied double figures, as well, in the afternoon bout. Coming off the bench, freshman Roshaunda Washington (Land O’ Lakes, Fla.), led her
team with 14 points including 4-for-5 from the downtown.

Fellow freshman Nicolle DiRaimo, the 2007 SSC Freshman of the Year, added 12 points while senior reservists Carissa Collie (Orlando, Fla.) had 11 points.

DiRaimo was completely surprised on her Freshman of the Year award because with her team everyone contributes.

“Near the end of the season, we started winning some games,” said DiRaimo. “We had hoped to win here, but that’s how it works sometimes.”

Defensively, senior Danise Fequiere (Miami, Fla.) topped all defenders with seven boards for Tech while Southern junior Willamina Folks (Tampa, Fla.)
tallied five rebounds and nine points.

“Going into the season, I thought that there were four go-to players that could score at least 20 a night and tonight we had three players…Tamilio,
Richardson and Heminger… that stepped up made it happen,” stated Reynolds, the SSC Coach of the Year. “Florida Southern played a great game, but our depth
showed and our team just wants to continue playing.”

The Panthers controlled almost every aspect of the statistical portion of the game out-hustling the Mocs 48-to-38 under the boards with Tech at 11 steals
to Southern’s eight for the game.

Tech barely edged the blue, red and grey Mocs 22 to 23 in forced turnovers. The real difference for the spread was taking advantage of the turnovers with
Florida Tech scoring 25 points off of them while Florida Southern only managed 13 points.

Both teams took full advantage of their bench with Florida Southern scoring 43 of their points from their “six man club” while the Panthers launched 58 of
their points from their lengthy reserves.

In the first half, Florida Southern kept the game tight for the first 10 minutes of the game with the lead see-sawing back and forth. The Mocs’ took
control of the scoreboard for the third and final time of the game at 8:25 in the first period off a threy by Washington.

“I was really proud of how we played, they didn’t quit,” said Mocs head coach Jarrod Olson. “Near the end, we had a couple of bad plays but we never gave
up.”

Tech’s Tamilio answered back with her own three pointer to edge the Mocs’ by one 20-to-19. Junior Victoria Vanacore (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) knotted
the game 20-to-20 on a made free throw.

Richardson was the next Panther to score also on a trip to the line regaining the lead 21-to-20 and Tech never relinquished the lead again. At the half,
the Panthers headed to the locker room with a 40-to-30 score.

Junior Amanda Muns (Chico, Tex.) finished with seven points and was one of two Panthers to go a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. Muns and freshman Lindsay
Greene (Stallings, N.C.) snuffed the only two blocks of the game. Senior Shante Johnson (Orlando, Fla.) was the other Panther to finish perfect from the
charity strip making all four shots.

Senior Danielle Vaughn (Tallahassee, Fla.) also contributed to the 70% (21-for-30) night from the line going 2-for-2 finishing with six points.

#2 Florida Tech will face # 3 Tampa (21-7) on Saturday, March 3 at a noon tip-off in the semi-finals of the SSC Women’s Basketball Tournament to follow the
game live check out the Panther website at http://gopanthers.fit.edu/stretch.php. #3 Tampa defeated #6
Nova Southeastern in the first game of the day 64-to-38. To watch Saturday’s game live or to find out other information regarding the 2007 SSC Basketball
Championships check out the website at http://www.lynn.edu/index.php?src=gendocs&link=SSC_Basketball_Championships
.

Newspaper Box Score
Florida Southern vs Florida Tech
03/01/07 2:30 pm at Boca Raton, Fla. (de Hoernle Center)

FLORIDA TECH 89, FLORIDA SOUTHERN 64

FLORIDA SOUTHERN (11-17)
WASHINGTON, R. 5-9 0-0 14; DIRAIMO, Nicolle 3-8 6-8 12; COLLIE, Carrissa
3-11 4-8 11; FOLKS, Willamina 3-3 3-5 9; BOORDE, Alexis 3-5 0-0 6; NISHIO,
Akiko 2-2 0-1 4; VANACORE, Victoria 1-2 1-2 3; PRINCE, Nakita 0-4 3-4 3;
NELSON, Erica 1-4 0-0 2; Menzies, Katie 0-2 0-0 0; CASSIDY, Elise 0-1 0-0 0;
SAOJI, Meghana 0-4 0-2 0. Totals 21-55 17-30 64.

FLORIDA TECH (23-5)
TAMILIO, Jennifer 8-18 0-1 20; RICHARDSON, McKena 8-10 4-6 20; HEMINGER,
Kristin 5-7 5-5 16; MUNS, Amanda 1-4 4-4 7; VAUGHN, Danielle 2-4 2-2 6;
JOHNSON, Shante 0-1 4-4 4; RUSSELL, Casselle 1-1 1-2 3; CRIMI, Kassie 1-2
1-2 3; CHASE, Tenisha 1-1 0-2 2; FEQUIERE, Danise 1-4 0-0 2; McCARTNEY,
Megan 1-4 0-0 2; JONES, Sabrina 1-3 0-0 2; GREENE, Lindsay 1-2 0-2 2;
HARRELL, Kristi 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 31-64 21-30 89.

Florida Southern………….. 30 34 – 64
Florida Tech……………… 40 49 – 89

3-point goals–Florida Southern 5-19 (WASHINGTON, R. 4-5; COLLIE, Carrissa
1-4; BOORDE, Alexis 0-2; VANACORE, Victoria 0-1; NELSON, Erica 0-2; Menzies,
Katie 0-1; CASSIDY, Elise 0-1; SAOJI, Meghana 0-2; DIRAIMO, Nicolle 0-1),
Florida Tech 6-11 (TAMILIO, Jennifer 4-6; HEMINGER, Kristin 1-1; MUNS,
Amanda 1-3; HARRELL, Kristi 0-1). Fouled out–Florida Southern-SAOJI,
Meghana; COLLIE, Carrissa, Florida Tech-VAUGHN, Danielle. Rebounds–Florida
Southern 32 (FOLKS, Willamina 5), Florida Tech 48 (FEQUIERE, Danise 7).
Assists–Florida Southern 11 (COLLIE, Carrissa 4), Florida Tech 10
(RICHARDSON, McKena 3). Total fouls–Florida Southern 25, Florida Tech 25.
Technical fouls–Florida Southern-PRINCE, Nakita, Florida Tech-TEAM. A-157
ID-533520

Sunshine State Conference Championships – Game 4