LAKELAND, Fla. – In front of a boisterous home crowd at the Furnace on "Silent Night", the Southeastern women's basketball team handled the Warner University Royals 77-42. With the win, the Fire improved to 8-0 on the season including 3-0 in Sun Conference action.
It was a "Silent Night" game on Thursday night, meaning the crowd remained inaudible until the Fire scored their tenth point of the contest.
It did not take long for SEU to break the silence, as they started with impressive up-tempo play on offense, shooting out to a 10-0 lead that was capped off by a three point play by senior guard
Bailey Hooker. The crowd erupted as Hooker sunk her free throw with 7:22 remaining in the quarter. She finished as the team's leading scorer for the fifth time this season with 22 points.
Seven different Southeastern players scored in the final five minutes of the quarter to give the Fire a 26-11 lead at the end of the first.
The Royals managed to outscore the Fire 17-14 in the second quarter, however, SEU carried a 40-28 lead into the half.
SEU silenced Warner with commanding defensive play in the second half. The Fire held the Royals to 14 total second half points including an astounding three points in the fourth quarter.
Pressure from the SEU defense forced several Warner mistakes in crunch time, as the Fire forced 13 turnovers in the second half and 29 total for the game. Southeastern scored 21 points off takeaways.
Warner was unable to cut the SEU lead to under 20 for the last 15:28 to play. This was the least amount of total points the Fire have surrendered to a Sun Conference opponent since 02/21/15 versus Florida Memorial.
"We have been extremely consistent with the results of the games we've played. No matter where we've played or what style of team we've played against, we have found a way to be effective offensively and defensively," shared Head Coach
Tim Hays.
Other top performers for Southeastern included junior guard Ana Richer, who scored 13 points, piled in five rebounds, picked up four assists, and pocketed three steals. Senior forward
Christin Strawbridge, senior forward
Sarah Green, and junior guard
Jenny Dee were also double digit scorers.
The Fire will continue conference play as they travel to take on the Keiser University Seahawks on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
