Women's basketball teams has record-setting night in state tourney win

The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team opened the FCSAA State Tournament in record-breaking fashion.

The Titans hit a state tournament record 16 3-pointers in a 108-89 victory over Miami-Dade in the quarterfinals Thursday night at the College of Central Florida in Ocala.

Sophomore guard Mariah Batz led the attack, hitting nine 3-pointers for the second time this season which tied a state tournament record. The Titusville native finished with a career-high 34 points in the win.

"I just had the game of my life, it is amazing … I honestly can't believe it," Batz said after the game. "Breezy (Brianna Lewis) was finding me like crazy. We were all scoring tonight."

The Titans had nine players score as Alexandrine Obouh Fegue finished with 26 points for the second straight game and now has scored at least 10 points in 25 of the 29 games this season.

Lewis finished with a season-high 16 assists to go with 17 points.

The game was tied 40-40 late in the second quarter when the Titans went on a 15-0 run to finish the quarter and head to the locker room up 55-40.

"Our team did a great job of going inside and outside, we went to Alex early and that opened up the outside shooting and Breezy was outstanding finding the open shooters," Eastern Florida State College women's basketball coach MJ Baker said.

Miami-Dade would once again cut into the lead in the third quarter and cut the lead to eight points with a basket to start the fourth quarter. But Obouh Fegue hit a basket and then Batz hit a 3-pointer as the Titans hit shot after shot down the stretch to claim their 23rd win of the season.

"We have had a couple of really good practices lately and I felt like we were really prepared for this game," Batz said. 

The 108 points is the most by a Titans team since 2015-16 season, when they scored 110 against Miami-Dade. The team hit 17 3-pointers earlier in the season which was the most by a Titans team in the past five seasons. Besides the nine by Batz, Ieava Spigule had three, Angeni Worley hit two and Victoria Morales and Embla Andersson each had one.

The Titans advance to the state tournament semifinals for the first time since 2002 on Friday night. The Titans will face Tallahassee who defeated Daytona State College in the final game of the night Thursday. The semifinal game will tip off at 8 p.m. in Ocala.