Firebirds Fall at Bridgeport in Regular Season Finale; Still Earn No. 2 Seed in Upcoming ECC Tournament

BRIDGEPORT, CT – The University of the District of Columbia women's basketball team was defeated by Bridgeport, 80-78 on Saturday afternoon in its regular season finale; however, the Firebirds still claim the No. 2 seed in the upcoming East Coast Conference Tournament courtesy of a Queens loss at LIU Post this afternoon.

UDC and Queens finished with identical ECC records of 15-5 and split their head-to-head matchups this season; therefore, the next tiebreaker was how the two teams performed against the rest of the conference from top to bottom. Since the Firebirds split games with No. 1 LIU Post and Queens was swept by LIU Post, UDC was awarded the No. 2 seed and Queens gets No. 3.

The Firebirds were led this afternoon by junior transfer guard Telisha Turner (Criminal Justice – Wilmington, DE/Harcum), who scored a game-high 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. Sophomore transfer guard Shantrel Oliver (History – Columbia, MD/Chesapeake College) made the most of her second start of the season by scoring 14 points, and junior forward Denikka Brent (Mechanical Engineering – Chesapeake, VA/Booker T. Washington HS) added 11 points as well.

The Purple Knights (7-19, 5-14 ECC) were led by Aziza Patterson, who had an up-and-down day that included team-highs of 26 points, four assists and five steals but also 11 turnovers. Tiara Aziz also registered 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Evelyn Ovner hauled in a game-high 11 rebounds to go with eight points.

The first half consisted of four ties and seven lead changes, but it was Bridgeport who turned 12 UDC turnovers into 18 points and took a 44-32 lead at intermission.

Patterson's layup to open the scoring in the second half extended the Purple Knights' lead to a game-high 14, but the Firebirds responded with a 7-0 run to cut the lead in half at the 16:44 mark. Still trailing 56-47 with 14:26 to play, Turner converted a four-point play (three-pointer and a free-throw), and Oliver knocked down a jumper to bring UDC within three, 56-53 with 12:30 left. Then, after a pair of free-throws by Aziz made it a five-point game, sophomore forward Tatyana Calhoun (Environmental Science – Disputanta, VA/Sussex Central HS) led the Firebirds on a 5-0 run with back-to-back layups, forcing a 58-all tie at the nine minute mark with the second of those layups.

The Firebirds took their first lead of the second half, 65-64, after a pair of free-throws by Brent at the 6:48 mark, but the Purple Knights went on a 9-0 charge to pull back in front, 73-65 with 4:23 remaining. Slowly but surely the Firebirds chipped away at the deficit, outscoring UB 13-5 over the next four minutes until a layup by Turner forced the 7^th and final tie of the game, 78-all with 13 ticks showing on the clock. Unfortunately, that only set the stage for what proved to be the game-winning layup by Aziz with three seconds left after a feed inside by Patterson. A desperation attempt by UDC at the buzzer was nowhere near the basket as Bridgeport ran off with an upset victory on the Purple Knights' Senior Day.

As a No. 2 seed in the East Coast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, the Firebirds will host on Thursday, March 6^th at 7 p.m., the winner of the first round matchup between No. 6 Dowling and No. 3 Queens which will be played in Flushing, NY on Tuesday, March 4^th.