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Florida Tech Struggles in Loss to Florida Southern

The Florida Tech women’s hoops team suffered their 12th conference loss of the season on Wednesday, losing 56-39 to the Florida Southern Moccasins in Lakeland. The loss drops the Panthers to 2-15 overall.

No Panthers scored in double digits as Makyla Daniels finished with nine points. Aiste Vaitekunaite finished with nine rebounds and Lina Stranger-Johannessen led the Panthers with four assists.

Fanny Paulin finished with eight points, five rebounds, one assist, and three steals.

It was a tough shooting night for both teams with Florida Tech going 14-for-46 from the field (30.6 percent), including 3-for-17 (17.6 percent) from three-point range. Hannah Roney, who is Florida Tech’s best weapon was held without a point, going 0-for-6 from the field and 0-for-4 from three.

The Moccasins (10-8, 8-4 SSC) struggled for much of the game themselves, shooting 33.9 percent from the floor (20-for-59), with a 4-for-19 (21.1 percent) performance from beyond the arc.

They were led by Whitney Jacob, who finished with 18 points. She was one of three Moccasins in double figures. She ended the night with 15 rebounds, giving her a double-double. Julia Jenike had 13 points and Mackenzie Steele had 10.

The first quarter was 8-6 in favor of Florida Southern with the teams combining to shoot 6-for-30 in the first 10 minutes. Florida Tech’s struggles continued in the second quarter as they had just two points in the quarter and watched the Mocs finish the quarter on a 17-0 run. 

The only points the Panthers had in the quarter came from Dalma Ehmann, who got a bucket with 6:55 left in the quarter to make it 10-8. Florida Tech did not score again in the quarter. The Mocs’ led 27-8 at the break.

Daniels had the first four points of the third quarter for Florida Tech and Paulin hit a three to cut the lead to 29-15. Stranger-Johannessen then scored five straight for the Panthers to make it 31-21.

A three by Paulin with 29 seconds left and free throws by Cheyenne Scott at the end of the quarter got the Panthers to within 11, 39-28 with 10 minutes left in the contest. Florida Tech outscored FSC 20-12 in that third quarter.

A three-point play with 7:19 left by Vaitekunaite cut the FSC lead to nine, 41-32. That was as close as the Panthers would get as the Mocs scored nine of the next 11 points and led 50-33 before Aayana Nedd scored for the Panthers to make it 50-35 with 3:53 to go.

Florida Southern did not get a field goal in the final 2:51 but they did enough to keep the Panthers at arm’s length, outsourcing them 17-11 in the quarter and winning the game by 17.

For more info: Florida Tech @ Florida Southern Box Score

Florida Tech will host Rollins on Saturday, January 29 at 2:00 p.m.