LAKELAND, Fla.—For the eighth time in nine years, Southeastern has clinched at least a share of The Sun Conference regular season title in women's basketball.
With an 87-77 win over Florida Memorial on Wednesday and losses by Ave Maria and St. Thomas, The Fire moved into sole possession of first place with a one game lead with one to play.
Southeastern (19-7, 10-3 SUN) used a 53% shooting effort and a 25-for-30 showing at the free throw line to come away with the win.
The Fire also got a career-high 30 points in 31 minutes from
Bekki Kalaydjiev who was 8-of-10 from the field and was successful on all 12 of her free throws. The grad student added five steals, three assists, and two rebounds to the winning effort.
Kalaydjiev had six points of an 8-0 run to close the first half and give Southeastern a 49-33 lead at halftime.
The Lions (11-15, 3-10 SUN) scored 34 points off of 27 SEU turnovers and connected on 12 3-pointers in the contest to keep the Fire from getting too comfortable. FMU got within five with 49 second left on a 3-pointer by Quameerah Peterson-Gray, but turnovers on three of their last four possessions kept the Lions from getting any closer.
Mya Herman added 11 points and three steals to the Southeastern stat sheet and
Kiki Britzmann added 10 points and nine rebounds.
Courtni Demorest had 13 off the bench, going 3-of-6 from 3-point land.
The Fire will close out the regular season on Saturday at 5 p.m. against Warner.
