LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire ran away in the fourth quarter to come away with The Sun Conference Tournament championship for the sixth time in seven years.
Southeastern (29-1) led start to finish in an 88-58 game at The Furnace Saturday night.
"This is an incredible team with incredible girls that live their life a certain way on and off the court and make us proud," said coach
Tim Hays. "Every year is unique and every year has its challenges."
With 3:27 left in the third quarter, the Warriors (21-7) whittled what was once an 18-point deficit down to just three at 52-49. Southeastern closed the quarter on a 9-2 run with four of those points coming off of a pair of steals by
Rebecca Cook which resulted in a layup and two made free throws by Cook.
Cook finished with nine points, four steals and three rebounds.
Leading by 10 to start the fourth, the Fire opened the quarter on another 9-2 run to push the advantage to 17 with just over seven minutes to play. A 6-0 run by
Josselin Geer got the lead to 20 at 76-56 with 3:56 left.
Geer added a season-high 13 points, going 5-of-6 from the field.
The Fire outscored the Warriors 27-7 in the fourth quarter, going 12-of-13 at the free throw line and were a +7 in the turnover margin in the final 10 minutes.
"Webber is a very good team and we knew they had a run in them," said Hays. "Our depth ultimately played out, we hit some big shots, made a run, and put it away."
Leilah Vigil matched her season high with 18 points, scoring 12 in the first half. She finished the game 9-of-15 from the field and had a team-best eight rebounds to earn all-tournament honors.
"I just wanted to have fun and leave it all on the court and go back to being the Leilah that I know," said Vigil. "We stayed together as a team and trusted the process."
Off the bench,
Marta Aranda scored 15 points, going 5-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point range. For the tournament, Aranda was 9-of-12 from the 3-point line to earn tournament MVP honors.
"We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we came out and did what we needed to do and put it all together," said Aranda. "I'm so proud of all of my teammates and it's such a special day for us."
Southeastern lead 16-2 with 3:26 left in the first and held a 23-10 lead after the first. An 8-0 run in the second quarter by the Warriors got the deficit down to 38-30 with 1:42 left and the Fire got it to nine at halftime on a pair of
Tahanee Bennell free throws at 43-34.
The Fire will return to action at home in the opening round of the NAIA National Championship on March 11
th.
