MIAMI SHORES, Fla. (Women's Basketball) – Florida Tech was unable to complete a fourth quarter comeback in its road test with Barry on Wednesday and the Panthers fell to the Buccaneers 67-61 in Sunshine State Conference action in Miami Shores. FIT drops to 9-9 (3-7 SSC) in the loss, while Barry moves to 5-14 (3-8) just past the midway point of the conference season.
 
Tereza Sedlakova paced FIT with a double-double on a career-best 19 points (7-of-11) and 10 rebounds. DeLise Williams added 12 points and seven boards. Julie McCarthy chipped in seven points and a game-high 12 rebounds and Amanda Allen scored seven points for the Panthers.
 
For the Bucs, Kiara Palmer led all scorers in the game with 20 points (8-of-13) and 11 rebounds. Julia Paulin notched 16 points, including three makes from beyond the arc. Melanie Jordan tallied 11 points and three boards.
 
Barry outshot Florida Tech 38.2 to 35.4 percent in the game. FIT went 6-of-24 from three point range while BU made 8-of-21 in the game.
 
The Crimson and Gray dominated the rebounding department in the loss 50-36 including a 21-10 disparity in offensive boards, which led to 20 second chance points for the Panthers.
 
FIT got off to a good start, scoring the first five points of the game on makes by Williams and Allen. However, the Bucs quickly tied the game at 5-5 at the 5:04 mark and doubled-up the Panthers the rest of the period to take a 17-11 edge into the second.
 
The Panthers cut the margin to 22-20 on a jumper by McCarthy with 4:31 left in the second but another Bucs run gave Barry a 33-25 advantage going into halftime.
 
BU increased its lead to 13, 38-25, early into the third quarter but FIT sliced the margin to 39-31 on a second-chance basket by Sedlakova with 5:32 remaining in the quarter. Barry would build its lead back to 12 on a put-back by Seyranian with 1:15 remaining. However, Aniquah Swan's three on the next possession cut the deficit to single digits and FIT went into the fourth trailing 46-37.
 
With 6:17 left in the fourth, a Williams' put-back got the Panthers back to within seven of the Bucs, 53-46. FIT would continue the momentum and outscore Barry 10-6, including a pair of treys by Allen, to cut the margin to 59-56 with just 45 seconds remaining.
 
Three makes at the line increased BU's lead to 62-56 with 25 seconds left but Kareese Johnson would answer with a three to get the deficit back to three with only 19 ticks remaining. However, that would be as close as the Panthers would come to tying the game as Barry would finish off the contest from the line and earn its third SSC win of the season.  
 
The Panthers will now get a week off to recuperate before welcoming SSC foe, No. 23 Eckerd to the Clemente Center on Wednesday, Feb. 1, for a 5:30 p.m. ET tipoff. Fans can access the live coverage at FloridaTechSports.com/live.