ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – On Saturday afternoon, Florida Tech (8-9, SSC 5-6) was downed by the Eckerd Tritons (13-5, SSC 7-4), 65-43 at the McArthur Center.
Running the Panthers offense with a season-high 17 points, junior
Tereza Sedlakova ended the weekend outing with a 7-for-11 performance from the floor and a team-best four rebounds. Adding six points to the FIT total, senior
DeLise Williams tallied a team-high two assists and two steals. Senior
Tanease Richardson scored five points for the Crimson and Gray, going 2-for-4 from the field in 12 minutes of action.
As a team, Florida Tech notched a 30.6 shooting percentage from the floor and went 50 percent from behind the line. Additionally, FIT outrebounded the Tritons 35-33 and held a 3-2 advantage in blocks.
Eckerd started off the contest with an eight-point streak, which eft Florida Tech scoreless for the first three minutes of the initial stanza. The Panthers raced back to cut the Tritons lead in half, but the St. Petersburg lineup roared back to close the period, 25-12.
The Tritons offense kept rolling, and eventually increased their stretch by as much as 17 points, 33-16, at the 7:16 mark. From there, the Panthers sank seven consecutive baskets to shrink the difference to 10, 33-23. Both teams traded baskets, and although Florida Tech drained the last two points of the second period, Eckerd entered the locker room ahead, 37-28.
In the third period, Sedlakova got things going on a good layup to decrease the Panthers deficit to single digits, 37-30. In the following eight minutes, both squads remained scoreless until the 4:07 mark, where the Tritons sank consecutive 3-pointers to overlap the Crimson and Gray, 44-30. For the remainder of the period, Eckerd continued to grind and eventually closed the third, 51-33.
Entering the final stanza, the FIT exchanged baskets with EC, but was unable to overcome the point differential.
Next up, Florida Tech will return home to host Rollins on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 5:30 p.m. ET.
For live coverage of the event, fans can access FloridaTechSports.com!