Women's basketball team opens season with win over Gulf Coast

The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team opened the regular season with a big win against Gulf Coast State College at the JUCO Women's Basketball Shootout at Titan Field House Friday evening.

The Titans defeated Gulf Coast State College 75-68 to wrap up a busy first day. Eastern Florida State College led from the start as Tatiana Beaumont scored 10 points in the first quarter to give the Titans a 17-9 lead after one quarter.

Eastern Florida State College would increase the lead in the second quarter and headed into halftime up 14, 33-19.

But Gulf Coast came out strong in the third quarter, cutting the lead to 10 in the first four minutes of the third quarter. Gulf Coast would cut the lead to four points with 2:58 left in the third quarter but a huge 3-pointer by Kristina Goncharuk and a Beaumont block led to a L'or Eyeba Mputu basket and a 45-36 lead.

The Titans would hold a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter but big shots by Mputu and Rapuluchi Ngorka would get the lead back to 15 points halfway through the fourth quarter.

Gulf Coast would make one final run and cut it to five with under a minute left but the Titans would hold on for the victory.

Mputu finished with 16 points and eight rebounds while Ngorka scored 15 points with eight rebounds. Beaumont also had 15 points to go with five assists.

In other games on Friday at Titan Field House, Santa Fe defeated Indian River State College behind a big third quarter. Aleisha Curry finished with 14 points and Taniah Bowers had 13 in the win.

Santa Fe will play Gulf Coast State College at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Pensacola used a balanced scoring attack to defeat the Florida State College at Jacksonville 81-44. Pensacola will play Miami Dade at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Miami Dade lost to Chipola 95-40 on Friday as Chipola's Ta'Shonna Wright Gaskins had 17 points and teammate Ashley Baez finished with 16 in the win. Chipola will play the Florida State College at Jacksonville at 1 p.m.

Eastern Florida State College will wrap up day 2 against Indian River State College at 5 p.m.

Admission to games at Titan Field House is free and games will be shown live online at EFSC Titans YouTube page.