SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—A big second quarter by No. 14 Vanguard helped the Lions come away with a 73-61 win over Southeastern in the final game of the Westmont Holiday Classic on Friday.
The Fire used a 4-of-7 effort from 3-point range in the first quarter with three coming off the hands of
Gabby Suarez to keep within striking distance of the Lions, trailing 18-16 to start the second. After being down six at two different points of the second quarter, the Fire used another 3-pointer by Suarez at the 6:38 mark and a layup by
Madison Vaira at the 6:18 mark of the quarter to get within one at 24-23.
Vanguard was able to answer with a 3-pointer of their own on the next possession and answered a
Kiki Britzmann layup with a 6-0 run to take an eight-point lead with 2:54 left in the half. Halle Si'i scored the last five points of the half in 34 seconds to put VU up 38-29 at the break.
A 10-3 run to start the third quarter by Vanguard had the Fire down 48-32 with 7:45 left, but the Fire battled back using a 7-2 run late in the period to get within six on a 3-pointer by
Anja Knoflach with 1:06 left to make it 55-49. Vanguard again answered, getting the final four points of the quarter on layups by Melissa Akullu and Si'i to hold a 59-49 lead to start the fourth.
Britzmann had eight of the team's 12 points in the fourth quarter as the Fire were unable to get the 3-pointer going again and were unable to get back within single digits.
Suarez led the Fire with 21 points, going 5-of-7 from 3-point range and Britzmann added 19 points with a 9-of-10 effort from the field. Britzmann and Knoflach had seven rebounds each
Akullu led all scorers with 26 points and had 12 rebounds. Si'i had 13 points ,six rebounds, and eight assists.
The Fire will be back on the court on Thursday at home against Florida Memorial at 5:30 p.m.
