Pioneers suffer tough road loss to Eastern

The IRSC women's team took to the road Saturday to face the Titans of Eastern Florida State College in what was predicted to be a possession by possession battle to the finish. In their last meeting the Titans took the Pioneers to overtime and IRSC came out ahead in the end.

The scene was set from the tip as Eastern scored the first bucket followed by IRSC's answer. The first quarter was a mirror image to their first meeting as the Titans and Pioneers traded bucket for bucket. Keona Cadore sparked the River's offense hitting back to back 3's in hopes of bringing momentum to the game for IRSC. With EFSC up 18-17 at the sound of the first quarter ending, the Pioneers were wearing thin as their bench was short this game with only six players in the rotation. Second quarter again found the same start for both teams, until a series of Pioneer missed scoring opportunities opened the door for Eastern to start their transition game. IRSC knew they needed to keep EFSC to a half-court game, but poor shot selection with no rebounding allowed them to easily convert and take the lead. The Pioneers unable to get fresh legs in and give players a break found them down quickly as the Titans went on a late quarter run outscoring the River 13-34. With a halftime score of 30-52, the River was suddenly down 22 points with no answer in sight.

Third quarter saw more of a defensive effort from the Pioneers as the game came back into a slower steady pace. Despite the low scoring quarter that still found Eastern ahead with a 7-16 lead, the total overall score of 37-68 was difficult to cut down.  The fourth quarter IRSC had scoring opportunities handed to them as they spent a majority of the time at the free-throw line. But with a game of poor shot selection, missed buckets and weak rebounding efforts; it was only inevitable that the River could not convert from the free throw line as well.  As the final minutes closed in, Eastern Florida State maintained a commanding lead on the River with a final score of 91-52 splitting conference play at one win a piece.

Keona Cadore led the Pioneers in scoring with 19 points. Annette Dukes made her return appearance after being out due to a traumatic car accident with a double-double of 10 points, 10 rebounds and Elaine Field had 9 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals.

The Pioneers move to 3-8 in conference play and 5-20 overall for the season. They will travel next to face Broward on Wednesday Feb. 22.