Women's basketball team's run continues, faces Jones Saturday in quarterfinals
The historic run continues for the Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team who defeated No. 2 Shelton State Thursday night to advance to the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament quarterfinals.
The 18th seeded Titans will face another team that has turned some heads in Lubbock, Texas this week.
No. 23 Jones College made it to the quarterfinals after defeating No. 10 New Mexico Junior College by nine points in the first round and then beat No. 7 Blinn College by eight in the second round on Thursday night.
Jones College won the Region 23 title to qualify for the national tournament for the sixth straight season and has won nine straight games heading into Saturday's quarterfinal. Sakiya White recorded her 16th double-double in the win with 27 points and 19 rebounds.
The Titans are making their first appearance in the national tournament and opened the tournament with a win over No. 15 Moberly Area Community College and then defeated No. 2 Shelton State on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals.
Tatiana Beaumont had a season-high 20 points in the first game and Leilani Guion had a season's best 17 on Thursday. Teammate L'or Eyeba Mputu is averaging 12 points and 9.5 rebounds per game at the national tournament.
Eastern Florida State College is now 28-4 which is a program best and the 28 wins is the most in program history. Head coach MJ Baker has now won 101 games with the Titans.
The Titans have used a strong defense to make this run in the national tournament, holding opponents to under 50 points per game.
"Defense has been our strength, it is kind of crazy because we have a lot of offensive weapons but we have been preaching all season that defense travels and rebounds travel but offense doesn't always travel," Eastern Florida State College women's basketball coach MJ Baker said Thursday night.
Jones scored 77 points in their win on Thursday which is tied for the most in the tournament this season.
The quarterfinal game will be at 4 p.m. EDT Saturday at Rip Griffin Center which is the home of Lubbock Christian University. Fans can watch the national tournament games live on the NJCAA Network for $10 per day or $30 for the tournament by visiting the NJCAA Digital Content website.