Women's basketball team defeats No. 4 Northwest Florida at JUCO Shootout

The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team defeated No. 4 Northwest Florida State College 62-53 Friday at the JUCO Shootout at Daytona State College.

The No. 9 Titans improved to 9-0 with the victory which marked the first time in program history that Eastern Florida State College defeated Northwest Florida State College.

"It was a gritty win, both teams came to compete and give their all and at the end of the day I am just grateful we were able to get the win," Eastern Florida State College women's basketball coach MJ Baker said. "This is a huge win for us, I don't think I have ever beaten Northwest Florida so this will go down as a special win for me."

The Titans got things going early as Elli Garnett scored five of the teams first nine points as Eastern Florida State College took an early 9-4 lead. They would continue to build the lead and finished the first quarter with an 18-12 lead.

Northwest Florida State College came out hot in the second quarter and would tie the game 20-20 in the first three minutes of the quarter but Leilani Guion hit a jumped from the key then Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu grabbed an offensive rebound and put it up to give the Titans a 24-20 lead. From there the Titans finished the quarter on a 13-4 run to hold a 37-24 lead at halftime.

The fourth quarter once again saw Northwest Florida State College make a run and cut the lead to single digits, but up four late in the fourth Guion hit a free throw and then Amelia Hassett hit a shot and Guion finished with a basket to lock up the win for the Titans.

Garnett finished with 15 points, while teammate Leilani Guion had 12 and Hassett and Madlena Irena Gerke each had nine in the win.

"We didn't shoot very well or finish very well today but we came defensively and when we had to have a basket, they found a way to get it done," Baker said.

Eastern Florida State College is now 9-0 on the season and has another win against a top 10 team in the nation to begin the season. The Titans will play No. 19 Florida Southwestern who lost to No. 5 Gulf Coast State College Friday, on Saturday afternoon at noon at Daytona State College. The game can be seen live online at the Daytona State College YouTube page.