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Coming off a tough loss on the road to rival Lakeland this past Wednesday, the Tri-C Triceratops basketball team had an opportunity to get back on the winning track with the Owens Express making their way into town for a matinee matchup at the Tri-C East Campus.
Owens was 11–11 overall with Tri-C coming into the matchup with an overall record of 14-9.
It was a home game for the Triceratops and they took advantage of the home court with a 67-56 win over the visiting Owens Express after a tough loss earlier this week.
“Helping us regroup was…. getting better in the gym and then being able to transition that on to the game,” commented Tri-C co-head coach Jasmine Frierson after the win.
Tri-C started the game with an 8-2 run as Quimari Shelton led the Triceratops with four points to her name at that point and Owens was forced to call a timeout with 6:48 left to go in the first quarter. Owens was only playing with the five players on the court as they had no subs available for the game.
“We pride ourselves on our defense,” said Tri-C co-head coach Dion Griffin in regards to the first quarter. “Owens is a good team and they continued to rally back in there.
The timeout settled the Express as quick buckets by Ariel Grace helped cut the defect down to three as Tri-C lead 8-5 at that point.
The momentum was short lived as the Triceratops defense created turnovers and scores by Shelton and teammate Briana Bunkley gave Tri-C a 14-5 lead with 3:29 left in the first quarter.
Shelton had 10 points to her name at that point in the contest.
One bright spot for Owens was that they did shoot five for eight from the free throw line in the first quarter.
Coming out in the second quarter, with Tri-C leading 16-11, a three ball by Express guard Alyssa Strahm cut the lead to two. It was short lived as Shelton drove to the inside for Tri-C to get the layup and Triceratops an 18-14 lead.
Shelton would continue to have a threat inside the paint as scores from her and teammate Marybella Dunlap would give Tri-C a 22-14 early as we approached eight minutes left in the second quarter.
Shelton would continue to torment the Express and after Tri-C went up 26-16 with 3:37 left in the second quarter, Owens was forced to take another timeout.
Owens tried to get into an offensive momentum with consecutive three ball shots made by Strahm and teammate Jessica Roper but Shelton continue to push her way inside the paint for Tri-C and had 20 points next to her name on the stat sheet with 1:38 left in the second quarter. Tri-C led 32-22 at that time of the game.
Coming out of halftime, Owens continued to miss on opportunities inside as did Tri-C. Despite having a strong first half, the Triceratops only scored four points coming out of halftime within the first four minutes of the third quarter. Tori Smith did go on a hot streak for Tri-C by scoring consecutive baskets and a three ball by teammate Zarina Fader helped Tri-C continue to dominate with a 45-31 lead with 3:46 left in the third quarter.
One bright spot for Owens at that point was guard TT Flowers had 15 points for the Express.
Another bright spot for the Owens defense was holding Shelton to only four points in the third quarter. That was the only quarter in the game where Shelton did not have double digit scoring at that time.
Tri-C maintained a double-digit lead until about 5:44 left in the fourth quarter when Flowers hit a jumper for Owens to make it 54-43 Tri-C lead. The single-digit deficit was short lived as the Triceratops countered with a Zarina Fader three-ball shot to go up 57-43.
“We know we have to close games out, ” said Tri-C assistant coach Valencia Griffin. “It is our mental toughness [that kept us focused].”
With only being able to use the five players on the floor, Owens showed fatigue and missed several key shots inside during the fourth quarter.
“We knew if we stuck with our defense, they only had five players, they would start wearing down,” said Tri-C co-head coach Dion Griffin after the game.
Aggressive rebounding and defense helped the Triceratops maintain the steady double-digit lead and pulled away with a 67-56 victory at time to improve to 15-9 overall.
With the loss, Owens dropped to 11-12 overall.
Player of the Game:
Tri-C Quimari Shelton – 28 points and leading scorer for Tri-C
