ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. – The Elizabeth City State University women's basketball team fought back from a ten-point deficit with 45 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to one before falling to Puerto Rico Bayamon, 73-70, in non-conference action inside the R.L. Vaughan Center on Wednesday night.
 
The Vikings (1-2) were hampered all game by turnovers but cleaned up their play when needing to make their run late in the fourth quarter. ECSU was led by Naterria Luster who notched a double-double by scoring a team high 19 points and matched that with a game and career high 19 rebounds for the contest. Also active for the Vikings was Asia Deal who compiled 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting and was the spark behind the late fourth quarter run. Markeia Porter's nine points were all scored in the fourth quarter and helped to buoy a Viking offense that struggled at times facing a stingy Bayamon defense. Porter also finished with eight rebounds to post the second best effort in that category for the Vikings.
 
Puerto Rico Bayamon (1-0) jumped out to an early ten-point lead in the first quarter before the Vikings chipped away to close that gap to 21-16 at the end of the first 10 minutes.
 
ECSU went on a 7-0 run at the end of the first quarter and spanned it into the second to tie the contest before Jalyn Brown hit one of her two three points to give ECSU the lead at 24-23. From that point the Vikings hold that margin until halftime with the score 36-35 in favor of ECSU.
 
The third quarter brought a defensive struggle as Puerto Rico Bayamon held ECSU to just eight but ECSU did their part to limit the visitors to just 13 points in the ten-minute frame. Bayamon would hold on to a four-point advantage, 48-44, at the end of three.
 
Where the defense was the story of the third quarter, the offense came back with vengeance for both teams in the final quarter as ECSU would outscore Bayamon 26-25 in the final stanza but the lead built in the third was just too much to overcome for the Vikings.
 
Bayamon was led by Anellisse Vargas who garnered a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds off of 9-of-18 shooting from the field. Nicolle Diaz also posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
ECSU will have a short turnaround as they will face off against the University of Mount Olive in a home contest on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. inside of the R.L. Vaughan Center.
 
You can follow all of the action through the ECSU Athletics Twitter @ECSUVikings or follow the live stats from the game at ECSUVikings.com. Tickets are available for the contests.
 
Chick-Fil-A of Elizabeth City is a proud community partner/sponsor of Elizabeth City State University Athletics. On all home game days, Chick-Fil-A of EC will host "Mobile App Spirit Night", right after the game for two hours.  Place an order on the Chick-Fil-A Mobile App and post #VikingPride in the special instructions section https://one.chick-fil-a.com/ . This is a fundraiser for ECSU Athletics Department after every home game. Also, Chick-Fil-A of Elizabeth City will be at every home game this season service food in the concession stand inside of the R.L. Vaughan Center.