ST. AUGUSTINE –
Sara Pedraza poured in a season-high 23 points in Flagler College's home opening loss to Florida Tech 73-59 in a non-conference women's basketball game Tuesday evening at Flagler Gymnasium.
Florida Tech evened its record at 1-1 while Flagler is now 1-4.
Pedraza's first basket was a three-pointer that gave the Saints an early 5-3 lead, but the Panthers went on a 20-4 run to take a 23-9 lead. Flagler chipped away and got the deficit down to four (26-22) at the half.
Sharale McCormick's layup early in the third quarter gave the Saints their first lead since 4:02 left in the first quarter. Her basket capped an impressive 18-3 run that covered just over six minutes.
Florida Tech ended the third quarter with an 11-point lead (50-39) and extended the lead to as many as 18 in the fourth quarter.
Pedraza made 11-of-her-12 shots from the free throw line and grabbed a season-high six rebounds. She added four assists and two steals to her line.
Taylor Gardner added 12 points, three rebounds and three assists. McCormick tacked on eight points and six rebounds while
N'Mya Pierce led the team with eight rebounds.
Tai Roberts led the Panthers with 21 points. Sarah Liberatore came off the bench to provide 14 points while Severine Uggen and Aiste Vaitekunaite added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Divine Guthrie grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and Emily Acampora tallied four assists.
Flagler will head to Daytona Beach this weekend for the Bahama House Shootout. The Saints take on Northern State University of Aberdeen, South Dakota at 1 p.m. at the ICI Center.
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