Women's basketball team opens state tournament Wednesday

The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team will open the FCSAA State Tournament Wednesday evening at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Florida.

The Titans, who are the No. 8 seed in the tournament, are making their fourth straight appearance in the state tournament and will face the No. 1 seed and second-ranked team in the nation, host Northwest Florida State College in the first round at 7 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

"Northwest Florida is a very discipline team on both ends of floor and we match up well with them," Eastern Florida State College women's basketball coach MJ Baker said. "The key to our success is going to be limiting turnovers, taking high-percentage shots and keeping them off the boards. We are focused on what we need to do to play our best."

The Titans come into the tournament 12-7 on the season and head into the postseason led by the sophomore duo of Stephanie Torres and Anja Knoflach.

Both were named to the all-Central Conference first team and Torres was named to the all-state team after averaging 16.4 points per game which is third-best in the state. Knoflach is third in the state in 3-pointers made per game, hitting 2.6 3s per game and has made 39.5 percent of her 3-pointers this season.

The two teams met in the first round of the state tournament last year with Northwest Florida State College jumping out to an early lead in the first quarter and went on to win the state tournament.

This season the Titans come into the tournament getting healthy as starting guard Kaitlyn Sanders is back after an injury. Sanders has averaged 15 points per game in limited minutes in her two games since the injury that caused her to miss most of the conference season.

Redshirt-freshman starter Zahria Jenkins has scored at least 11 points in four of the last five games and the second team all-Central Conference forward has been shooting well the past couple of weeks, hitting 41 percent of her shots in the past five games.

"We have faced much adversity in this COVID season but one thing that we have learned through this tough year is what a privilege it is to be to able compete in basketball at Eastern Florida," Baker said. "This team has worked really hard to earn a postseason berth and we are ready to seize the opportunity against one of the top teams in the nation." 

Wednesday's game will begin at 7 p.m. EST and be shown live on emeraldcoasttv.com