SF WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Gainesville, FL – Florida State College-Jacksonville maintained their strangle hold on first place in the Mid-Florida Conference on Wednesday night, defeating the Saints 79-65, moving themselves to 17-6 overall and 5-0 in the MFC. Santa Fe falls to 14-9 and 2-3 in conference play.
Paulina Zaveckaite had another solid game for the Saints, scoring 18 points to go with 24 rebounds. She now has 370 rebounds on the season, tops in the nation.
“Paulina continues to impress me more and more,” said Stebbins. “She really worked hard and did a nice job tonight of turning her offensive rebounds into put backs.”
The Saints led by as many as nine in the first half but a late run by the Blue Wave put SF in a 34-31 hole at the half time break.
Santa Fe fought back at the start of the second half and a layup by Lonna Turner knotted the game at 42-42. From there however, it was all FSC-J. The Blue Wave ran off eight straight points to move ahead 50-42 but Monique Bunk and SF answered, cutting the margin back to just three at 54-51.
FSC-J turned it up a notch the rest of the game and pulled away using a 12-0 run to go out in front 66-51. The Blue Wave never looked back from there and held the Saints at bay the rest of the game for the 79-65 win.
“We let things get away from us about the eight minute mark and didn’t keep our composure like we need to against a team of this caliber,” said Stebbins. “We have to give FSC-J credit; they really fought hard and picked it up when they needed to. They out played us and right now are a better team.”
Jaquasha Sesler was the only other Saint besides Zaveckaite in double figures with 10 points, Raquitta Gooden finished with eight and Tay Couch scored seven.
“Raquitta had a very nice game on both ends of the court tonight,” said Stebbins. “She was responsible for handling [Sharmayne] Edwards and did a solid job of containing her, especially in the first half.”
Santa Fe will get a chance to get back on track Saturday, January 26 when they travel to Daytona State for a 2:00 PM tip against the Falcons.
For complete schedules and more information on Women’s Basketball, please visit www.sfcollege.edu/athletics. To see game photos and other updates, follow Santa Fe College Athletics on Facebook.
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