St. Petersburg, Fla. – Chelsea Patterson hit three free throws with eight seconds left as Lynn University's women's basketball team rallied to defeat Eckerd College, 74-73 Saturday afternoon at the McArthur Center. The Fighting Knights improve to 9-10 overall and 2-6 in the Sunshine State Conference while the Tritons fall to 11-8 with a 4-5 mark in the SSC.
Down by two, 73-71, Patterson called for a clear out, drove to the wing and her shot fake got Eckerd's Taylor Young in the air. Patterson drew the contact and a foul was called on Young, giving Patterson three shots from the charity stripe. The free throws gave the senior point guard a game-high 23 points as she went 7-12 from the field, 5-8 from three and 4-6 from the line.
Kira Harvey also scored 11 points for the Fighting Knights while Marquis Lee and Quanisha Dixon added 10 points apiece. Amanda Schultz also had a solid performance with nine points and seven rebounds.
Both teams lit it up in the first half with Eckerd going into the break with a slim, 40-39 advantage. Lynn actually outshot Eckerd percentage wise, 57% to 52% but the Tritons made 9-of-14 from behind-the-arc in the half compared to 7-of-8 for the Knights.
Eckerd came out strong in the second half and went on a 13-5 run in the first five minutes to take a 53-44 lead. Patterson responded quickly with a trey as she came up the court but Eckerd would regroup and extend its lead back to 13 at 65-52 with 9:08 remaining.
Lynn then went on a 10-2 run in the next three minutes to cut the lead to five at 67-62 to force a Tritons timeout. Eckerd would hit a three out of the break to end the run but Lynn would start another as a trey by Patterson cut the lead to 72-70 with 1:12 remaining.
After Natalie Basore and Eckerd's Tijana Brdar traded a free throw apiece, Lynn had 25 seconds to set up the game-winner. Lee had a baseline jumper roll off but Harvey chased down the rebound and set up Patterson for her isolation move.
Lynn was outshot 54% to 44% from the field but forced 16 Eckerd turnovers, including 10 in the second half, to rally for the victory.
The Blue & White is back in action Wednesday night when they host Saint Leo at 5:30 pm. Fans can follow the action by logging onto www.LynnFightingKnights.com and clicking on "Game Central."
