Balanced Effort Helps Women's Basketball Earn Victory Over FNU

LAKELAND, Fla. - A consistent performance and a huge third quarter helped the No. 2 ranked Fire women's basketball team rout Florida National 82-34 this Saturday afternoon. Southeastern improves to 8-2 overall on the season.

The Fire were the first team on the board, however after the Conquistadors knocked down two triples, they held a 6-2 advantage over the Fire with seven minutes left in the frame.

With five minutes remaining, SEU regained the lead as Raegan Linster sunk a three-pointer to give the Fire a 9-8 lead. The Fire closed the quarter on a 18-4 run to lead 20-10 going into the second frame.

Southeastern connected on eight of its 17 field goals in the second period to take a 42-19 advantage heading into the third quarter.

The Fire continued to produce for the remainder of the competition. In the third frame, SEU shot an outstanding 52.6% in the field overall, and increased their lead by 26 points by sharing the ball effectively. Overall, twenty-two of SEU's 33 field goals were assisted. Eliza West lead the Fire with a total of eight assists.

Southeastern capitalized on the Conquistadors' mistakes, as in forty-minutes of play, SEU scored 42 of their points off of 39 turnovers by FNU.

Closing out the game, in the final quarter, Southeastern outscored Florida National 16-5 to end the game with an 82-34 victory. 

Southeastern tallied a total of 52 rebounds, including 26 defensive and offensive rebounds each. Senior center, Marlena Schmidt lead the Fire with 10.

The Fire recorded seven total blocks. M'caela Sellers lead the team with four of the seven blocks. Sellers also finished the day third in points with a total of 13.

Leading the Fire's offense was Linster for the second game in a row with 23 points. Sophomore, Linster was one-point away from tying her career-high in points that she placed yesterday evening against Loyola (La.) at the SEU Thanksgiving Classic.

Following Linster in points on the afternoon was Taylah Simmons with a total of 20, shooting 53.3% in the field. Simmons and Linster led the team in steals with six each. 

The Fire will be back in action on December 5th as they play Webber International. Game is set to start at  7:30 p.m.