Titan women's basketball team upsets Palm Beach State on Sophomore Night
The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team handed Palm Beach State College its first Southern Conference loss of the season Wednesday night at Titan Field House on the Melbourne campus.
The two sophomores walked off the gym floor for the final time with a big 73-62 victory over the No. 12-ranked team in NJCAA Division I.
Trudy Walker finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds for her 16th double-double of the season and Tayler Smith had nine points in the win.
"This is exciting, I am so proud of our girls. We have preached the Titan Four all year, tough, hard, smart and together and I felt like tough screamed out tonight. The girls hung in there, we had some injuries and hard fouls and they stuck with it. I was so proud of the 40 minutes of effort they gave," interim women's basketball coach Stephanie Schafer said. "I know they wanted this one for coach (Jim) Grimes and for the two sophomores and it was exciting to see them play so hard."
Victoria Morales led the team in scoring with 16 points, while Mariah Batz had 14 points and Brooklyn Cruz finished with 13 points, including 5-for-6 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.
"When Caitlyn went out with a head injury, we picked Brooklyn to handle the ball and once she got in the groove, she really stepped up," interim women's basketball coach Cabriel Duren said. "So proud of her handling the pressure and knocking down big shots for us down the stretch."
The game was close throughout the first three quarters but it was the Titans who pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring Palm Beach State 26-15 in the fourth quarter to snap the Panthers 15-game win streak.
The Titans, who are now 10-18 overall and 5-6 in the conference, will finish the regular season on the road Saturday, traveling to ASA Miami.
