Titan Women Edge Indian River State Behind Vasquez, Grimes
Sophomore Paola Vasquez sank a three-pointer from the left corner in the final minute and then stole the ball and fed classmate Crystal Townsend for a layup to lift Eastern Florida's women to an 85-78 victory over scrappy Indian River State on Wednesday.
Vasquez's three-pointer gave the Titans an 83-78 lead after Indian River rallied to cut an 80-68 deficit with 4 minutes and 51 seconds to play to 80-78 with 1:12 to go.
The victory at the Titan Field House on the Melbourne Campus lifted first-place Eastern Florida to 9-1 in the FCSAA Southern Conference and 16-8 overall. Indian River dropped to 2-7 and 7-15 but not without pushing the Titans to the limit.
Indian River, which lost 89-63 to Eastern Florida on Jan. 23 in Fort Pierce, scored the game's first six points on Wednesday and fought the Titans to a 13-13 first-quarter draw.
The second quarter went back and forth until the Titans opened a 38-30 with 2:37 to play in the half. They extended the advantage to 44-34 at halftime.
The Titans led 54-41 with 6:47 to play in the third quarter and 65-59 at the end of three.
But Indian River fought back to take the game to the end.
Sophomore Emma Grimes led Eastern Florida with 24 points on seven-for-10 shooting from the three-point line.
"I give all the credit to my teammates," Grimes said. "They found me, they hunted shots for me. All the credit goes to them. It was a good team, we came out on top. I'm happy."
Townsend finished with 18 points and Vasquez nine on three three-pointers.
Freshman Trudy Walker contributed 13 points and nine rebounds. Classmate Kienya Jones had 10 points and nine rebounds.
Sophomore Nene Johnson scored eight points and recorded 15 assists.
"Paola was big tonight," said Eastern Florida head coach Jim Grimes. "She's a big shot maker. Our shooters saved us tonight, that's for sure. Paola's a big game player. At the end when we really needed her she was exactly what we needed to finish up the game."
As for Grimes' effort: "She struggled in the first half," Jim Grimes said. "I asked Coach (Gary) Woodmansee to talk with her and whatever he said worked."
Overall though Jim Grimes expected a better team effort.
"We've got to stop having them like that," he said. "We were terrible defensively the entire game. We were fine offensively, we scored 85 points but still we left a lot points on the floor at that. Our defense was terrible. We've got to play a lot better going forward that's for sure."
Next up for the Titans is a 2 p.m. Saturday match up at conference foe Palm Beach State in Lake Worth followed by a Feb. 9 game at conference foe St. Petersburg College.