Another road trip found the Bluewave headed to Pensacola, FL for the two day Pensacola Classic basketball tournament.
FSCJ would be tested a second time as they face the Pensacola State College Pirates in a rematch. The BlueWave dropped an 82-59 game to the Pirates in last weeks College of Central Florida Classic. They will then face a fresh opponent in day two when they take on Central Georiga Tech.
Slow start woes give Penasacola the opportunity to take an early lead in the first quarter 7-13. FSCJ would soon find their rhytmn and make it a game in the second quarter as both teams battled back and forth. Falling just shy of winning the 13-15 second quarter, the BlueWave still found themselves within striking distance heading into the locker room down 20-28 to the Pirates.
The opening minutes of the third quarter would see a repeat of the sluggish FSCJ start. This time the Pirates were taking full advantage and widened the margin in their 8-21 run on the BlueWave. This time the BlueWave blues would continue as the fourth quarter only saw two points generated by FSCJ the entire final quarter of the game. Pensacola's 2-26 performance in the fourth would be the nail that finalized the game and brought the 30-75 loss.
Aasiya Berry led with eight points followed by Asia Harden with seven points.
Day two would see a different BlueWave team take the court versus Central Georgia Tech. FSCJ was ready to play after the days previous loss to Pensacola. The BlueWave won the first quarter 17-16 and used that momentum to propel them to a second quarter 21-14 run. The surge would find the BlueWave ahead at the half with a 38-30 lead.
Unfortunately, the third quarter curse would return for the BlueWave and they would only score eight points to Central Georgia Techs 14. The lead change would ignite both teams to compete at a more intense level in the final minutes of the game. Central Georgia Tech would seize the moment and force the BlueWave to now play in hopes to tie the game. Freshman Mataea Boyd would be the last to have the ball at the end of regulation and she would come through with a baseline drive to drop one inside the rim to force overtime at 66-66.
Despite the BlueWave efforts to get a second chance in overtime, they only scored three points off a three-point field goal by Rosa Vreugd. Central Georgia Tech would outscore the BlueWave 8-3 in the OT period to claim the win in OT.
"We battled against a really good team this afternoon," said first year coach David Lowery "unfortunately, they made a few more plays than we did. That was a tough loss. We have to shift our focus on getting better this week to keep improving on the things we need to put a complete game together."