LAKELAND, Fla.—The No. 2 Southeastern University women's basketball team edged NCAA Division II Ferris State University 94-90 in overtime. Junior forward Taylah Simmons paced the Fire with 24 points, doing half her damage from the free-throw line where she went 12-15.
Southeastern struggled to get any momentum going early and found themselves trailing by as much as 11 in the first half, but found a way to narrow the deficit to just six before the break. Sophomore Raegan Linster notched seven points on 3-5 shooting from the filed in the first half and came through for the Fire when things broke down as the Bulldog defense wasn't giving Southeastern many open looks.
Collectively, the Fire shot 44.8% from the field in the opening half and converted on 55.6% of their free throw attempts.
Southeastern came out of the break looking to respond right away and tied the game at 45 with 5:39 remaining in the third quarter. Senior Marlena Schmidt scored five of her 15 total points in the early going of the second half to help the Fire tie the game. The Bulldogs never backed down and had a 54-50 advantage with 2:26 left in the third. Southeastern closed the quarter strong with a 6-1 run that gave them the lead heading into the fourth quarter. Taylah Simmons consistently gave the Fire offense as she scored 19 of her 24 points in the second half.
After a back and forth battle in the fourth, senior Eliza West sank a free throw with six seconds left that tied the game at 79 and sent the game to overtime.
In overtime, junior M'caela Sellers came up big with a block and scored six of the Fire's 15 points in the extra period. She converted two layups within 30 seconds in the final minute of play the pushed Southeastern's lead to five and thwarted and chance Ferris State had of coming back.
The Fire are back in action tomorrow in the Christmas Invitational when they have a rematch with No. 1 Concordia University. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
