Florida Sunshine Shootout-Recap
- 1/9/2008
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Beloit College, Medaille College, and Amherst College all posted perfect 2-0 records in the third annual Florida Sunshine Shootout in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The seven-team Division III women's event, held at Broward Community College, featured teams from five different states and three different geographic regions.
The tournament kicked off with a game that went down to the final buzzer as Amherst improved to 10-0 overall with a 65-62 victory over St. Norbert on Jan. 3. The Lady Jeffs led by as many as 23 points but St. Norbert battled back and missed a potential game-tying three pointer at the buzzer. In Thursday's second game, Beloit College stretched out a five-point halftime lead and held off Spalding College 77-66. Spalding led in the early going but the strong play of Beloit's Angie Meehan (20 points) and Christine Brown (20 points, nine rebounds) helped the Bucs improve to 4-3 on the season.
Amherst kicked off play again on Friday (Jan. 4) and once again provided a game that went down to, literally, the final buzzer. Much like its first game, Amherst controlled play early on and led Endicott College by 19 points with 18:34 to go in the game. However, thanks to the 1-2 punch of Ciceley Chisholm and Nicole Duchesne, Endicott battled back to take a four-point lead with 1:51 to play. The two teams traded baskets down the stretch and Endicott went up one, 70-69, on two Duchesne free throws with 1.4 seconds left. Amherst then inbounded the ball, threw it the length of the court, and after a deflection Sam Swensen drilled an off-balance, falling-away 35 footer at the buzzer for the 72-70 victory. The victory helped Amherst remain unbeaten at 11-0 on the season. In the second game of the day No. 21 Medaille College struggled early but ended up finishing off Colby College 60-47.
The final day of the event saw three games as Endicott kicked things off with 85-64 win over Spalding. The Gulls held just a one-point lead at the half but used a 49 point second half to post the win and move to 5-5 overall while Spalding fell to 0-2 in the Shootout and 4-10 on the season. Medaille continued to live up to it's national ranking in the second game as Amanda Baker's 16 point, 15-rebound performance led Medaille to a 67-53 victory over St. Norbert. Medaille left Florida with a 9-1 overall record while the Knights fell to 6-3. The tournament nightcap saw Beloit take command in the second half to post a 70-57 win over Colby. The Bucs improved to 5-3 overall while Colby fell to 1-7 on the year.
2008 Florida Sunshine Shootout All-Tournament Team
Marisa Clark, Medaille--MVP
Amanda Baker, Medaille
Katie McCabe, Colby
Nicole Duchesne, Endicott
Ceciley Chisholm, Endicott
Stefanie Reiff, Amherst
Shaina Pollack, Amherst
Allie Graves, Spalding
Christine Brown, Beloit
Diana Sopkowicz, Beloit
Morgan Strasser, St. Norbert
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