EFSC women’s basketball team wins, back in national tournament quarterfinals Saturday
The Eastern Florida State College women’s basketball team advanced to the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Division I National Tournament for the second straight year on Thursday night.
The Titans, who are the No. 2 seed in the tournament, defeated No. 18 Walters State College 73-45 at Rip Griffin Center at Lubbock Christian University in Texas.
Eastern Florida State College got off to a slow start, but got things going late in the first quarter as Leilani Guion hit a 3-pointer and Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu made a basket to give the Titans their first lead. They lost the lead again for a few moments, but the Titans finished with seven straight points before a Walters State 3-pointer to end the first quarter.
“It is hard to just jumpstart and we took a moment to get warmed up and going but once we got settled into the game, we were OK, but I think we just had some nerves,” Eastern Florida State College women’s basketball coach MJ Baker said.
Leading 18-15, the Titans took over the game in the second quarter as they built the lead to 10 points on two free throws by Amelia Hassett with 4:21 left in the second quarter gave the Titans a 32-22 lead. From there the defense began making a difference as Walters State failed to get a shot off twice and the Titans outscored Walters State 24-13 in the quarter to take a 15-point lead into halftime.
L’or Eyeba Mputu scored six quick points early in the third quarter and the Titans never looked back.
Ozzy-Momodu finished with 16 points and six rebounds while teammate Mputu had 14 and five rebounds. Elli Garnett had a big all-around game with 13 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
The win was the 32nd of the season for the Titans, who will play in the national tournament quarterfinals Saturday at 4 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: EFSC women’s basketball back in the national tournament quarterfinals
