BABSON PARK, Fla. (February 18, 2021) – The final game of the 2020-21 regular season for the postseason-bound Webber International University women's basketball team finished with a disappointing 70-59 loss for the Warriors during their Senior Night against the College of Coastal Georgia.
Although it was Senior Night for No. 2
LeAndra Franklin, No. 10
Paris Copeland and No. 21
Eletra Graham, it will not be the final home game this season for the Warriors inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center as Webber has locked up home court advantage for the first round of The Sun Conference Tournament for the second year in a row.
Graham led both teams in scoring with a game-high 19 points on 50 percent shooting both from the field (6-12) and from 3-point range (4-8). Copeland added 14 points, and Franklin scored four points to go along with seven rebounds, four assists, three steals and one block.
Among the junior class for the Warriors was
Amaya Small with four points and 11 rebounds;
Rushell Jacob with five points, nine boards and two blocked shots; and
Dasia Wandick with six points.
Sophomore
Samantha Pacheco scored seven points while matching her career-high in assists with six.
Webber, which never trailed in the game until the fourth quarter, led by 11 at 51-40 on a layup by Franklin with a minute left in the third quarter.
From there, however, Coastal Georgia scored the last five points of the third quarter and then started the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to jump ahead by two at 53-51 with 8:24 left to play.
The Mariners then continued their run to lead it by as much as 15 points at 67-52 with 3:26 remaining, a 27-1 run for Coastal Georgia over a seven-and-a-half-minute span dating back to the third quarter.
The Warriors finished the fourth quarter shooting only 2-for-15 (13.3 percent) from the field while the Mariners shot 10-for-15 (66.7 percent) in the period, and were 4-for-5 from three over the last 10 minutes.
Following the loss on Senior Night, Webber will now enter the postseason with a record of 16-9 overall and 12-8 in The Sun Conference while Coastal Georgia improved to 12-10 and 10-9 with one game left in its regular season. It was also the third loss this season for the Warriors against the Mariners, and was Webber's seventh straight defeat in the series.
Next up, the third-seeded Webber Warriors will have to wait and see who they will host as the No. 6 seed on Tuesday, February 23, inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center. Both the starting time and Webber's opponent will not be announced until the weekend. If the Warriors continue to advance, they will head to the TSC semifinals on Friday, February 26. The championship game will then be held on one-day later on Saturday, February 27, with an automatic berth to the NAIA National Championship Tournament on the line.
