MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.— With their 29-point victory over the St. Thomas University Bobcats on Saturday night, the Fire women's basketball team completed a perfect conference schedule for the third consecutive season. Southeastern took the contest by a score of 78-49 to end the regular season with a 25-2 (18-0) record.
The Bobcats kept things close for the first quarter, connecting on five of their first eight three-point attempts to offset early turnovers.
Jaycee Coe and
Makenzie Cann each answered with threes of their own to put the Fire up 15-12 after one quarter of play. Both players had five points in the first ten minutes.
The Fire then went on a 15-7 run over the course of the second frame. Southeastern, who forced nine first-half turnovers, capitalized on STU mistakes to take a double-digit advantage at the break (30-19).
In a quarter that has been traditionally good for SEU, Southeastern absorbed a run by the Bobcats. STU was able to cut the Fire lead to just seven with 48 seconds to go in the third with a 17-13 stretch in the frame.
From that point on, SEU outscored St. Thomas 35-13, stepping up both offensively and defensively. Southeastern, who had averaged 15 points per quarter through three frames, scored 33 in the last ten minutes.
The Fire hit an outstanding six threes (three by Cann) in the final period, while holding the Bobcats without a three-point field goal for the last 27:45 of the competition.
Overall, the Fire's second-ranked field goal defense kept St. Thomas to just 27.4% (17-62 FG) shooting from the field and their second-best three-point shooting improved from 38.8% with the 11-24 (45.8%) effort.
Cann finished with a game-high 21 points, while Coe ended with 16 on 7-10 shooting.
Elsa Paulsson-Glantz scored 12 and
Raegan Linster led SEU with 11 points off of the bench.
Southeastern will now host The Sun Conference Tournament as the number one seed. After a first-round bye, the Fire will play the winner of the four/five-seed matchup on Friday at 5 p.m. in the Furnace.
