(Mesa, AZ) Led by Aubry Saleapaga in the first half and Kayla Schroeder and Aylnna Palacios in the second half the Park University Gilbert women’s basketball team used a 45-35 scoring advantage in the second and third quarters to walk away with an eight-point 67-59 win over Embry Riddle Eagles this evening at Arizona Athletic Grounds.
The Buccaneers up their record to 9-5 on the season and 3-1 in GSAC play. The Eagles fall to 6-10 overall and 1-3 in conference play. Park has won six of the last seven games in the series.
The first quarter was not a masterpiece on the part of either team as 11 total turnovers between the two teams led to the Bucs leading 12-10. Saleapaga did half of the Bucs scoring in the frame with six points.
The second quarter saw Park score the first four points before ERAU went on an 11-0 run to take a 5-point lead. The Eagles maintained this advantage through the 2:24 mark in the quarter leading 27-22. The Bucs finished the quarter on a 13-2 run to take a six point lead into the intermission with Saleapaga putting the exclamation point on the run with a three-point basket as time expired. She finished with another seven points in the quarter.
Park Gilbert used the momentum of the run at the end of the second to start the third quarter on an 15-4 run to increase the lead to 17 points and it looked as though the Bucs might run away with things. Embry Riddle managed to pare the lead down to 12, 57-45 by the end of the quarter. But all of the momentum was in the Buccaneers corner.
But that’s the thing about momentum, it can switch on a dime and Embry Riddle put the Buccaneer fans on the edge of their seats down the stretch. The Bucs held the 12-point lead 61-49 with just under seven minutes to go. The Bucs shooting went ice cold over the next 5:07 as they shot 0-7 from the floor in that time frame and ERAU went on an 8-0 run during this period to cut the lead to four. 61-57. Schroeder broke the drought with a steal which she converted into a layup with 1:43 remaining in the game.
Embry Riddle needed to foul to send the Bucs to the line in the hope of continuing the comeback, but was three fouls away from the bonus and Park took advantage to drain more time off the clock and even scored on a Palacios layup off of one of the inbounds plays to extend the lead. Once ERAU put the Park at the line, they watched the Bucs best free throw shooter Schroeder drain her two shots from the charity stripe to ice the game away.
The Bucs finished shooting 43 percent from the floor and an unusually low 27 percent from three point range. The Bucs held ERAU to 34 percent from the floor and 11 percent from three.
Individually, Schroeder led all scorers with 17 points and she added six rebounds and three steals. Palacios posted her fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds and added to her steal total for the season with three thefts. Saleapaga finished with 13 points and four assists which led the team.
Park returns to the court on Saturday in a matchup of 3-1 GSAC teams as the Bucs take on The Master’s who won tonight against Benedictine Mesa. The game will be played at Chandler-Gilbert Community College at 12 p.m.
Press Release courtesy of Park University Athletics- Preston English
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