The Florida State College at Jacksonville women' s basketball program picked up their first win of the season at home Tuesday November 8th.
FSCJ played host to Beacon College, located in Leesburg. "This is a first-year program working to develop an athletic program." said head Coach Diana Couch. "We feel very fortunate to be a part of their schedule and to have had the opportunity to compete with them."
The BlueWave were able to start their bench this game and provide some valuable playing time early in the season. Winning the opening jump ball, FSCJ started the game with a turnover that led to several additional nervous mistakes for the crew. Finally settling in, the team began to find it's rhythm and freshman Emelyn Gonzalez scored 6 of the teams 15 first quarter points.
Beacon College determined not to go scoreless another quarter set out to attack the basket, Davis and C. Dryden fulfilled that goal. Answering back Alyssa Pearson hit a baseline jumper to record her first bucket as a member of the FSCJ BlueWave, along with teammate Jacovya Major. Outscoring Beacon 10-6, the BlueWave headed into halftime up 40-6.
The start of the third quarter began similar to the first for FSCJ, but continued substitutions allowed the BlueWave to get their execution of plays under control when freshman Kahliya Gaitor stepped up to lead. Contributing 5 points on the floor, Gaitor also helped to distribute assists while fellow freshman Emily Lee cleaned up on rebounds to add 6 points to her first season outing. Beacon College, however, went cold struggling to connect and the third quarter found them outscored 20-0.
Entering the final quarter FSCJ went further into their bench and returning sophomore M'Kayla Patterson stepped up to contribute 9 points towards the goal. Beacon College pushed forward one more time behind the scoring of Claire Dryden's back to back layups and pull up jumper to add excitement to the game bringing the fourth quarter 13-9 effort to an end.
FSCJ marked the first win of the season outscoring Beacon College 59-12 behind the scoring of guard, M'Kayla Patterson with 13 and returner Danielle Caldwell, Kahliya Gaitor, Emelyn Gonzalez and Emily Lee recorded a season high 8 points to the win.
Due to the tropical storm, Thursday's home game versus Johnson University was recheduled to December 6th at 6:00 p.m.