The Falcons women’s basketball team competed in the FAU Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday and Saturday afternoon, successfully sweeping the competition and picking up wins over Norfolk State as well as the host Florida Atlantic Owls.
“Before we left, we had a team meeting and set our goal for this tournament,” Falcons head coach Jennifer Roos said. “It was a resounding, we wanted to go 2-0 and win it. To their credit, they played extremely hard and with a lot of heart, every single player on the team contributed in both games.”
In the first round contest of the tournament, the team defeated the Norfolk State Spartans by a score of 59-50 on Friday afternoon.
The Falcons were explosive in their offensive attack. Junior Carly Santoro led the way with a double-double (16 points and 10 rebounds) for an offense which featured three double-digit scorers. Sophomore Andrea Cecil netted 12 points on 5-of-5 perfect shooting, while senior Haley Puk also added 11 points.
The team capitalized on a few late-game runs to ice the game, move into the final round of the tournament, and improve their record to 4-1 on the year.
“Norfolk State’s a really talented team,” Roos said. “They were bigger than we were at every position, they lead the nation in blocks, they’re really long… they just get their hands on a lot of balls and entry passes, from high to low, wing to the block, but for the fifth consecutive game we’ve gone into the locker room with the lead and that says a lot.”
For the second straight day, the Falcons picked up a second consecutive win on Saturday. The Falcons put down the host Florida Atlantic by a score of 66-55 to improve their record to 5-1.
Carly Santoro led the way with another double-double yet again. The Junior Guard had 16 points and a season-high 17 rebounds. This impactful performance led the way to Santoro being named the tournament MVP. Cecil Andrea contributed 11 points as well to the contest. And Senior Haley Puk joined Santoro on the All-Tournament team by contributing a great effort to the team throughout the weekend.
The Falcons saw another extensive halftime lead cut down by what looks to be the team’s Achilles heel; the third quarter. This time in the form of an 11 point lead, it was trimmed down to
only two by the time the horn of the third quarter rang. The Falcons relied on more late-game heroics yet again as they rode a fourth-quarter 11-0 run. This run provided a 57-47 lead at the four-minute mark of the fourth. This lead the way to victory and had the Falcons never looking back.
“We talk as a team about starting strong and finishing stronger,” Roos said. “I thought we had very good first quarters in both games and very good fourth quarters in both games and that talks a lot about our heart, our maturity and our togetherness as a team.”
Up next, The Falcons come back to BG to face the Valparaiso Crusaders on Tuesday night. The team looks to extend their early season winning streak to three games.
