Women's basketball heads into the final week of their regular season after splitting a pair of matchups in last week's Sun Conference play.
Southeastern prepares for a home week in which the Lions of Florida Memorial University (11-14, 3-9) and the Warner University Lions (9-15, 4-8) both come to The Furnace in hopes of a late season upset.
On Wednesday of last week the Fire (18-7, 9-3) took on St. Thomas the co-leader of Sun Conference, and despite overcoming a late third quarter 14-point deficit, the Fire were unable to finish the deal at home and fell to the visiting Bobcats 79-74, splitting the season series with them. On Saturday the Fire traveled up to Brunswick, Ga. to face the College of Coastal Georgia Mariners (7-17, 1-11), and behind a strong defensive effort the Fire downed the competition, winning 62-48.
Even though the shots did not seem to fall, Southeastern used its tenacious defense to tame the Lions in the first meeting 69-48.
Bekki Kalaydjiev led in scoring with 13,
Kiki Britzmann had 12,
Anja Knoflach ended with 11, and
Courtni Demorest had 10.
Rebecca Cook took nearly a third of the team rebounds corralling 11 boards.
Kalaydjiev and Britzmann have been the story for the Fire offensively this year. Kalaydjiev leads the team in scoring with 14.6 points per game, and eclipsed the 1,000 point total two weeks back in a match against Webber International. Britzmann averages 10.8 points per contest as well as just over five rebounds. Freshman
Mya Herman, who had nine in the first contest against Florida Memorial, averages 9.4 points per game with nearly two steals per game. The Fire offense as a whole scores 70.8 per game.
The Fire defense is their strong suit, ranking 21st in the NAIA. This unit allows only 57.9 points per game, forces 18.4 turnovers and scores 19 points off of those turnovers. Kalaydjiev and Herman lead the steals department, averaging 2.4 and 1.7 per game,
Anaya Coleman follows closely with 1.5 steals per game.
Ariana Smuda guards the rim with 1.3 blocks per game, and Cook and Britzmann clean the glass averaging 13 rebounds between the two.
Florida Memorial comes to Lakeland having won two of their last three, with the loss being to third place Ave Maria. However, on senior day they were able to defend their home, defeating Webber International University 67-62. The Lions revolve most of their offense around guards Dasiah Thornton and Chantel Barnett who average 31 together, and the team averages 66 points per game. The defense holds teams to 63.2 points per game and forces 20 turnovers. Thornton again does most of the heavy lifting, leading the Lions in nearly every statistical category except rebounds and a few shooting percentages. Karma May leads the team in rebounds with 123 total.
Saturday the Fire welcome cross county rival Warner University to the Furnace. In the first contest in Lake Wales, the Fire propelled themselves behind a massive second quarter to a 87-45 victory over Warner. Kalaydjiev again led in scoring with 18, Coleman followed close behind with 15.
Warner comes into this contest with only one win in the past six contests. Their most recent game was a 78-64 loss to the Keiser Seahawks. Offensively the Royals are commandeered by Jasmine Edwards, their post player who averages 16.3 points per game, she is accompanied by Courtney Logan and Dianis Hurtado who score 11.8 and 10.4 per game. On the defensive side of the court the Royals allow 67 points per game and force 15 turnovers, most of these forced turnovers are steals from Logan who comes away with 3.1 steals per game.
The Fire tip off against Florida Memorial at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and they tip off against Warner on Saturday at 5 p.m.
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