River picks up win #5 with second half surge

The Indian River State College women's basketball team travelled to Lake Worth, FL to face conference rival Palm Beach State. This was the second meeting for Pioneers and Cougars in conference play.

The Pioneers for the first time all season won the jump ball to spark the beginning of the first quarter. It was a team effort in the start as scoring was distributed evenly among the Pioneers, but Joseline Ramos came ready to play as she led the River with 8 points. The Cougars had a slow start until a three point shot ignited their offense and they began to fight back ending the opening minutes 16-17 in the River's favor.

The second quarter sung a different song for the Pioneers as Palm Beach maintained their hot hands hitting another 3 three point shots to break the game open. IRSC lost their defensive rhythm and were shell shocked from the long ball that Palm Beach was dropping as they outscored the River 17-8. The Pioneers went cold and the halftime score of 33-25 showed it.

Halftime the River re-organized themselves and came out ready to go. IRSC began attacking the basket and turned up their defensive presence catching Palm Beach State off guard. Behind the steady scoring of Joseline Ramos and Edley Drawhorn the River dominated the third quarter holding Palm Beach to only 10 points while adding 24 points on their side of the board. Now with a score of 43-49 the River regains the lead.

The final quarter awakened the River offense as other members of the team started to contribute, that re-energized the defense to do its part. Able to now create defensive stops, point guard Cyann Fox  was able to get her River team to start transitioning making it easy to convert shots. The River continued their flow and surged forward scoring 27 more points before the final buzzer sounded. The River managed to come back from a dismal start and pull out a 76-60 conference win.

"Our team seems to think that we don't need to exhaust ourselves early in the first half and that we can comeback in the second half", says a frustrated Coach Diana Couch. "We have to break out of these slow starts because they will cost us games. At halftime I reminded them that the agenda is team ball, not personal ones. We have struggled lately, probably just that time of the year with having so many freshman but it can't be an excuse. I am so glad to see how they responded and fought back, but again it can't be late in the game. We have to see the big picture."

The Pioneers had three players in double digits, but more importantly everyone that played scored. Edley Drawhorn contributed 20 points, Joseline Ramos put up 19 points and point guard Cyann Fox 12 points and 7 assists.

The Pioneers move to 5-2 in conference play and will be back at home against ASA-Miami Friday for a 5:00pm tip off.