FORT MYERS, Fla. (Dec. 21, 2024) – East Tennessee State University women's basketball was unable to overcome a 16-point halftime deficit and came up short, 67-54, at Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday.

Senior guard Kendall Folley led the Bucs with her best performance of the season, scoring 25 points on 10-for-18 shooting and 2-for-3 shooting from behind the arc, hitting her first 3-pointers in over a month. 5th year guard Courtney Moore played all 40 minutes and added 18 points.

Like on Friday, freshman guard Carmen Richardson led off the scoring for the Bucs, tallying five of ETSU's first seven points.  Moore scored four, and a fairly even quarter ended with the Eagles holding a narrow 12-11 advantage.

FGCU flew out of the gate in the second, starting the quarter on a 10-0 run while forcing a pair of Buccaneer turnovers. Folley broke the run with a basket at the rim, but the Eagles continued a torrid stretch from behind the arc, shooting 5-for-8 in the frame against the usually staunch Bucs' 3-point defense. That stretch propelled FGCU to a 27-point quarter and 39-23 halftime lead.

The Bucs bounced back with a strong third quarter. The Blue & Gold defense forced six Eagles turnovers, held FGCU to 0-3 shooting from 3-point range and kept the Eagles from hitting a field goal for the last seven minutes of the frame as ETSU gnawed away at the 16-point deficit. Folley and Moore scored 17 for the Bucs, cutting the lead to as few as five before back-to-back close calls resulted in four Eagles free throws and a 51-42 margin to end the third.

Folley kept the Bucs in the game in the fourth, cutting the lead back to five three separate times, but the Bucs were unable to string together a run, and FGCU hit a trio of late triples to put the game away and win 67-54.

Next, the Bucs have some time off for Christmas break before the nonconference finale at 7 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2025, against Tusculum.

For more information on Buccaneer women's basketball, follow @ETSU_WBB on X (Twitter) and Instagram, and visit ETSUBucs.com.