SEU Women’s Basketball Clinches Fourth Consecutive Regular Season Crown

LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire women’s basketball team has been nearly unstoppable in conference play over the last four seasons. Southeastern, who has captured its last 58 contests against Sun Conference opponents dating back to February of 2016, clinched its fourth straight TSC regular season championship with an 89-30 victory over Thomas University in the Furnace on Saturday afternoon.
“[Winning four straight conference regular season championships] isn’t easy to do no matter the level or where you’re at. The girls have bought in, have chosen to do what we’ve asked them to do, and have worked extremely hard to be as consistent as they’ve been.” Head Coach Tim Hays remarked.
SEU utilized runs in both the first and third quarters to pull away from the Night Hawks. With the game tied 2-2 early, the Fire went on a 26-0 scoring stretch that featured buckets from six different Southeastern players. The Fire, who shot 75.0% (12-16) and 80.0% (4-5) from three in the opening frame, led Thomas 31-5 after ten minutes.
After only scoring 11 points in the second quarter, SEU went into the locker room up 42-18. Jaycee Coe scored nine, while Elsa Paulsson-Glantz added eight points in the first two quarters.
The third quarter, which has been Southeastern’s most productive ten minutes on both offense and defense this season, was highlighted by SEU outscoring the Night Hawks 26-1 in the period. The Fire, who did not surrender a single field goal in the quarter, held Thomas scoreless for a stretch of ten minutes and thirty seconds of gameplay to go up 68-19 after three.
Five players ended the day in double figures, all of whom were SEU teammates.
Coe nearly captured back-to-back double-doubles with her 14-point, nine-rebound effort. Paulsson-Glantz and Marlena Schmidt each grabbed five boards to go along with their 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Overall, Southeastern, the third-best shooting team in the country (47.2% FG pct.) and the fifth-ranked defensive team in the nation (34.2% opp. FG pct.), lived up to its reputation. The Fire shot 48.5% from the field and 47.4% from deep compared to Thomas’ mere 18.6% on the afternoon.
Emma Karamovic scored eight of her ten points in the second half, while Trisha Jacobs added 11 points off the bench to power the Fire to the 59-point win.
The 30 points given up by Southeastern in the competition were the fewest allowed by SEU in any game this season. With the triumph over Thomas, the No. 4 ranked Fire move to 23-2 overall and a perfect 16-0 in league action.
Southeastern will put its undefeated conference record on the line once again when the team hosts Florida Memorial on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.