The Florida State College at Jacksonville women's basketball team hosted local Trinity Baptist College the night before Thanksgiving break. The two teams had previously met in a preseason scrimmage in early October.
From winning the opening tip, FSCJ gave the Trinity Baptist Eagles a run for their money. A steal by Lucia Caballero excited the crowd, but unfortunately FSCJ was unable to convert and turned the ball over. Trinity Baptist hustled back to launch a shot from behind the arc and the ball went out of bounds and back into FSCJ's hands. Freshman Travonda Jackson would put FSCJ on the scoreboard first with a baseline drive. Trinity Baptist's cross court pass was then picked off by point guard Janay Demmitt. FSCJ would transition and find the ball in the hands of Kyra Frazine who would lay the ball in to give FSCJ a 4-0 start before TBC called a timeout. The Eagles would then come out and pressure FSCJ into a quick turnover and the battle was on. Sophomore point guard Kahliya Gaitor joined Kyra Frazine in scoring to keep Trinity Baptist at bay and finish the first quarter even at 21-21.
Janay Demmitt would open up the second quarter with a steal that led to Ameera Nayani's mid-range pull up jumper. Trinity Baptist would then be picked off once again by Demmitt who threw ahead to Lucia Caballero, but a missed lay-up resulted in Krya Frazine getting to the free-throw line after being fouled on the put back. FSCJ's defense would dominate the second quarter and added scoring from Frazine and Caballero from behind the arc would result in a 19-9 run on TBC. FSCJ would head into the locker up 40-30.
The third quarter started off with a bang when Travonda Jackson drove and kicked out to a hot handed Lucia Caballero. Caballero would drill a deep three point shot to continue the FSCJ hype on the sideline. Trinity Baptist would not be able to convert and a rebound by Ameera Nayani would pay off on the offensive end when Gaitor passed off to Nayani for another mid-range jumper. Trinity Baptist would turnover the ball over one more time before finding their rhythm and starting to match FSCJ bucket for bucket. FSCJ fought to maintain the lead after a 20-19 third quarter performance, bringing the score to 60-49 headed into the fourth.
A determined Trinity Baptist took the court and forced FSCJ out of their flow stifling their offensive sets. Lucia Caballero hit the last of her four three-point shots of the game in the final quarter, while freshman Janay Demmitt would score 10 of her 12 points to help her team maintain the lead. FSCJ's defensive breakdown would send the Eagles to the line ten times in the final minutes and the quarter would end even at 17-17. FSCJ would earn a notch in the win column after a 77-66 home court victory.
"Tonight's game started off a bit chaotic," said third year head coach Diana Couch. "Trinity Baptist did a great job of catching us off guard and throwing our team off rhythmn in the first quarter. Thankfully, we regained our composure and had some unexpected players step up. It was exciting to see Kahliya Gaitor and Lucia Caballero have breakout games tonight. Our goal has always been to have five players in double digits each game and tonight they finally saw the outcome of achieving that."
Sophomore Kahliya Gaitor would have her career high 16 points and six assists to lead her team. Kyra Frazine would join her and tie her season high 16 points, adding seven rebounds and two steals. Ameera Nayani added 12 points, seven rebounds, Janay Demmitt 12 points, four steals and Lucia Caballero would round out the five double digit scorers with 12 points, going 4-5 from the three-point line.
The Florida State College at Jacksonville women's basketball team will head into Thanksgiving break 2-5.
Tuesday, Nov 28th they will return to action hosting Daytona State College in a 6:00 p.m. re-match, followed by the men at 8:00 p.m. versus Santa Fe College.
The women will then host the "FSCJ Women's Basketball Holiday Classic" on Friday Dec 1st and Saturday Dec 2nd. Visiting East Georgia State College, Denmark Tech College and Calhoun Community College will be participating.