Junior Siarre Evans scored 13 points and grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds and fellow junior Latisha Belcher scored a game-high 20 points, but it was not enough to power past Florida Gulf Coast, as the Eagles snapped ETSU’s 13-game home conference winning streak 71-69 Saturday afternoon inside Memorial Center.
The loss now sets ETSU back one-half game atop the Atlantic Sun Conference standings, as the Lady Bucs dropped to 13-9, 11-3. Florida Gulf Coast, who jumped ahead of ETSU for first in the standings, extended its winning streak to 10 straight and improved to 19-4, 12-3.
“I am very disappointed with the way we played defensively and we got beat by a great basketball team,” said ETSU head coach Karen Kemp. “Overall, we had too many breakdowns on defense and allowed them to get open looks at the three.”
ETSU left the Eagles open for nine 3-point field goals, including one by Shannon Murphy with 4:18 to play gave FGCU a 65-61 advantage – which came right after the Lady Bucs had a shot to regain the lead on the prior possession.
Following that shot, both teams traded baskets over the next minute, and the Lady Bucs were able to clip the deficit to one, 68-67, after Evans hit a layup with 2:21 on clock. However, ETSU broke down on defense and allowed Gulf Coast’s Adrianne McNally to drive the lane, connect on a layup and draw the foul at the 1:58 mark. The McNally free throw put the Eagles up four, but the Lady Bucs never folded and Belcher’s layup with 1:23 remaining made the contest 71-69.
After the Lady Bucs made a stop on defense, however, junior Devin Thompson turned the ball over with 42 seconds remaining. Once again ETSU was able to hold the Eagles scoreless on the next trip, but with less than 10 seconds to go the Lady Bucs resorted to a desperation heave by freshman Natalie Pickwell that hit the front of the rim as time expired.
“On the final possession, I was wanting Siarre to penetrate down the floor so a timeout was not in our mind,” Kemp said. “With 21 seconds to play, we said we were going to get a stop and have Siarre drive the floor, but we were unable to do that.”
To go with Evans’ 11th double-double of the season (26th of her career), she was able to move past Sharon Allen (1978-81) for 11th all-time on the ETSU scoring list (1,152 career points). Also, Evans also moved past Missy Marvin (1986-89) and Marsha Cowart (1980-83) for ninth on the Lady Buccaneer all-time rebounding list (682).
Lyles led four FGCU players in double figures, as she poured in a team-high 17 points. McNally and Brown each netted 15.
The Lady Bucs begin a four-game road trip beginning Friday night in Nashville when ETSU faces Lipscomb. Tip is set for 7 p.m. inside Allen Arena and will be broadcast live on CSS.

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