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3/22/2009 - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Eagles WNIT Run Ends with 88-81 Overtime Loss
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TAMPA, Fla - Chelsea Lyles scored 20 points as the Eagles fell to the Bulls 88-81 overtime in the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) second round game at the Sun Dome.
The win, USF’s fifth in its last six outings, snapped the Eagles 17-game winning streak and ends their season at 26-5 overall. The victory also avenges a heartbreaking 67-65 loss, for the Bulls, to Florida Gulf Coast exactly one year ago in Fort Myers in the WNIT first round.
USF improves to 23-10 on the year marking the most wins in a season for a Bulls’ basketball team, men’s or women’s.
In a game that would eventually see 14 lead changes and seven ties by the time the final horn would sound, the Eagles jumped out in the first half and seemed to take control, despite never leading by more than four points in the first 9:32 of the first half, when Kelsey Jacobsen (Barnesville, Minn.) hit a three-pointer with 10:28 remaining in the first half.
Although Florida Gulf Coast dictated the tempo, the Bulls would eventually make a run to take a three-point lead, 36-33, on a driving lay-up by Wynne with 4:16 left in the first stanza.
The Eagles, however, would then put together their own run scoring the next 15 points to take a nine-point lead, 48-36, on a trey by Brittany Brown (Flint, Mich.) with 1:11 left in the half. That lead would prove to be Florida Gulf Coast’s largest margin of the contest.