Oilers Drop Close Contest on Day 1 in Florida
Tampa, Fla. – The University of Findlay is in the Sunshine State for a pair of games and dropped their first of two contests on the trip. On Tuesday, Dec. 18, the Oilers lost a non-league matchup with Florida Tech by a score of 65-59 to fall to 6-3 on the year while the Panthers boost their record to 3-6.
The game, which featured five ties and 13 lead changes, was back-and-forth for the entirety of the first half as neither team had a lead of more than four points. It wasn't until a couple minutes into the second half that the Panthers took slight control of the game as they went on a 6-0 run to take a 39-33 lead.
Florida Tech led the rest of the way and their lead reached as much as 11 points. The Oilers climbed back and got the score to 61-57 with 1:34 to play, but the Panthers hung on to pick up their third victory of the season.
The Panthers were on fire for much of the game as they made 51% (23-for-45) of their shots from the field while the Oilers hit on 41% (23-of-56) of their attempts. Florida Tech also held a 34-to-28 advantage on the boards.
Findlay was led by seniors Anna Hintz and Christa Puthoff who each scored 11 points on five made field goals. Puthoff had three rebounds while Hintz was held to just two rebounds, her least amount of boards in a game in which she started since Dec. 17, 2016 in a game at Michigan Tech where she had one rebound.
Senior Allie Thobe also reached double-figures as she chipped in ten points. She had four rebounds, two assists, and a steal while senior Jenna Stegmaier led the team with six rebounds.
Coming off the bench was senior guard Lauren Ruth who scored eight points on the strength of a pair of makes from deep while senior Elissa Ellerbrock scored five and led the squad with four assists.
Gracie Doane led the Panthers in scoring with 22 while Tereza Sedlakova scored 18. Doane made six shots from beyond the arc in the win.
Findlay will wrap up their trip south with a game tomorrow against the Holiday Classic host, University of Tampa at 3:00 pm.