MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Florida Memorial University's women picked the wrong night to have one of its worst shooting performances of the season – hitting just 26.5 percent of their shots from the field in a 63-53 loss to visiting College of Coastal Georgia Thursday night in the FMU Wellness Center.
After playing to a 19-19 tie at the end of the first, the Lady Lions (12-13, 7-8) saw shot after shot clang off the rim or rattled in and out as the Mariners built as large as a 15-point lead over the final three quarters. FMU, which will host Sun Conference rival Thomas University on Saturday, did make an overture late in the fourth – using a quick scoring spurt from
Airneisha Gamble and
Isis Lane to pull within six with just over a minute left.
Coastal Georgia (17-6, 11-3) made four free throws while FMU missed its final three shots, cementing the 63-53 margin.
While Thursday's loss was a blow to the Lady Lions as they continue vying for a spot in the top six qualifying spots for the Sun Conference's postseason tournament, it wasn't completely detrimental.
Florida Memorial still sits in sixth place, but is once again tied with St. Thomas University (10-15, 7-8) – which will play Coastal Georgia on Saturday. The Lady Lions do own the tiebreaker with St. Thomas because of their overall record is better than the Bobcats and FMU does have the easier remaining schedule, which is reason for optimism.
However, FMU cannot have more nights like it did Thursday.
Lane and senior
Shawnice King tied for the team-high in points with 12. Lane also grabbed 12 boards while King knocked down half (3) of the team's made three-pointers (6). Aside from King and Lane, no other FMU player had more than six points. Gamble saw her streak of consecutive games (9) scoring 10 or more points come to an end, as she finished with five points – all in the fourth quarter.
Brittney Howard and freshman
Ixsamar Gonzalez each added six, while
Ashleign Gary finished with five.
Florida Memorial head coach
Gregory Stanback said that his team played with a lack of energy Thursday.
"I saw it from shootaround this morning and into warmups tonight…our energy level was low," Stanback said. "We tried to talk to them and pick them up, but it just wasn't there and it manifest in our shooting tonight."
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