MELBOURNE, Fla. (Women's Basketball) –
Julie McCarthy recorded her second double-double of the season as Florida Tech (3-1, 1-1 SSC) was victorious in its home opener Saturday, topping the Barry Buccaneers (2-2, 1-1 SSC) 68-60 in Sunshine State Conference action at the Clemente Center.
McCarthy led all players with 20 points and 16 rebounds to go along with two steals and one block. The Honefoss, Norway product was very efficient in the game, making 7-of-9 from the field and 6-of-7 from the line.
DeLise Williams also had a strong outing, adding 13 points and three assists, while
Shequana Harris notched 11 points, five rebounds and a team-high four assists.
Markeema Crawford tallied seven points and five boards.
Julia Paulin paced Barry with 15 points and five assists and Elin Ekdahl collected 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including a perfect 4-of-4 from three-point range. Lauren Seyranian and Ayida Peters tallied eight and seven points, respectively.
As a team, the Panthers were 39.7 percent from the field, including 25.0 percent from three, and 17-of-20 at the charity stripe. BU made 48.9 percent of its shots and 35.0 percent from beyond the arc. However, the Bucs struggled from the line, converting just 9-of-21.
FIT crushed the Bucs on the glass 40-24, including a 15-4 disparity in offensive boards. BU finished with less turnovers 12-14.
Florida Tech jumped out to a 15-4 lead after the first 4:32 of the opening quarter. BU responded by tallying 14 of the next 19 points to bring the score to 20-18 at the end of one. After a pretty even second quarter, the Panthers found themselves still leading 32-28.
The back and forth play continued into the third as FIT held on to four point advantage with 5:02 left in the quarter. From there the Panthers outscored the Bucs 12-5 to increase their lead back to double-digits at 55-44 by the end of the third.
Crawford's trey less than halfway through the fourth period gave Florida Tech its largest lead at 12 points, 63-51. The Panthers would hold over the final minutes and earn their first conference victory of the season.
Florida Tech returns to action next Friday, Nov. 25, against Warner at 1 p.m. ET at the Clemente Center. Fans can access live coverage of the matchup at FloridaTechSports.com/live.
