Eagle women victorious in road debut

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (November 12, 2019) – Tallahassee Community College's women's basketball team hit the road for the first time on Tuesday and emerged with a 67-54 win at Santa Fe College. 

Since opening the season with a narrow loss to Daytona State College, Coach Matt Huddleston's Eagles (3-1) have won three straight, all against Region 8 competition. 

The Eagles averaged 90.5 points in the two previous wins but relied on a staunch defensive effort on Tuesday, limiting the Saints to 13 or fewer points in each of the first three quarters. 

Leading 28-19 at the half, Tallahassee all but put the game away with a 24-point third quarter and carried a 20-point lead (52-32) into the final ten minutes. The Eagles' lead eventually reached 22 at the 6:54 mark. 

All eight players who saw action scored for Tallahassee, led by Polina Nikulochkina's 14. She also had six rebounds, four assists and five steals. 

Tariah Bryant and Keisy Villanueva scored 12 and 10 points, respectively. Villanueva also had seven rebounds and five blocks. 

Santa Fe didn't make it out of single digits (nine) on the scoreboard in the first quarter and had only 19 points at the half thanks to 5-of-31 (16.1 percent) shooting from the floor. 

Tallahassee had an almost equally slow start offensively but led 11-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Eagles began to find their footing in the second quarter, outscoring the Saints, 17-10, en route to the nine-point halftime lead. 

Tallahassee held Santa Fe to 26.4 percent (19-of-72) shooting for the game. 

The Eagles will play games in Niceville, Fla., on Friday and Saturday at the NWF Classic. Friday's game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. tip against Denmark (S.C.) Technical College.