Women's basketball team hits road for battle for first place in conference

The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team will hit the road Wednesday for a battle of unbeaten teams in the Central Conference.

The No. 3-ranked Titans will play at St. Petersburg at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in a key early conference game.

St. Petersburg College comes into the matchup 3-0 in the conference and 15-6 overall and has won five straight and 11 of their past 12 games. St. Petersburg is led by a trio of guards who are averaging double figures in scoring this season. Jaylen Ponder is averaging a double-double this season with 11.4 points and 11.7 rebounds. Olivia Delancy is averaging 15.6 points per game and has averaged 21.3 points in conference games. Teammate Julie Ruiz-Paneto comes into the matchup averaging 14.1 points per game.

Eastern Florida State College comes into the game 18-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference and has won the past 15 conference games dating back to the 2020-21 season. The Titans have five players averaging at least 9.4 points per game led by the Region 8 Player of the Week L'or Eyeba Mputu who comes into the contest averaging 12.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. In the two conference games this season the sophomore is averaging 27.5 points. Teammate Shadaria Smith, who is second in the state in 3-point shooting percentage hitting 38.3 percent of her shots, is averaging 11.8 points per game while Amelia Hassett, Leilani Guion and Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu are each averaging nine points.

The matchup will be the first of the season between the two teams and has been a back and forth series the past few seasons with Eastern Florida leading the series 7-5.

Wednesday night's game will tip off at 5:30 p.m. in St. Petersburg.