For the UT women’s basketball team, good things come in twos – and threes.
Twin sisters Gianna and Catriana Messina combined for 11 three-pointers as they helped lead No. 16 Tampa (17-2, 7-1 SSC) to victory Jan. 23 at the Martinez Center. They soundly defeated the Sunshine State Conference rival Barry Buccaneers (12-5, 4-3 SSC) 63-39. The win pushed the Spartans’ winning streak to four games.
The Messina sisters provided the Spartans’ offensive spark. Gianna scored with 23 points, shooting 7-for-9 from three-point range. Catriana came off the bench to deliver 14 points while going 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. They finished the game as its top two scorers.
The Messinas combined for 37 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and two steals.
“I haven’t played too well at home this year,” Gianna Messina said. “So I tried to just stay focused. I think I shook the jinx.”
“There’s a level of comfort when you have your twin on the court with you. But we’re a very balanced team and we just look for the extra pass. If (Catriana) happens to be the pass, it looks like a twin thing. But we’re just trying to find the open person.”
The game wasn’t one-sided the whole way. Barry led 14-6 less than six minutes in. Tampa fought back and shut down Barry’s offense, limiting the Buccaneers to 18 first half points. Spartans coach Tom Jessee credited the shift in momentum to a slight tweak in his team’s defensive scheme.
“We were trying to take away the inside game,” Jessee said. “We were double-teaming in there, and we gave up some shots on the perimeter. So we made the adjustment to speed them up a bit.”
On the offensive end, UT shot 5-for-11 in three-pointers in the first half and led by 12 at the break. They bumped it up to 7-for-12 in the second half and 12-for-23 (52.2%) overall.
Barry’s long-range shooters were also busy, going 10-for-31 on three-point shots but not matching Tampa’s consistency.
The Buccaneers scored zero bench points and no player had more than nine.
“We were extremely confident coming into this game,” Gianna Messina said. “Coach was telling us not to have a letdown this game, and I think we came out and handled business.”
At 17-2 and in first place in the SSC, the Spartans believe they can repeat as conference champions despite the bull’s-eye on their back.
“This group has a mindset about taking the next step,” Jessee said. “We want to win a regular season championship by ourselves and not be co-champions like we were a year ago. We want to win the regional tournament, something that hasn’t been done here. But we can’t worry about too much more than our next opponent.”
Another story developed late in the game with Tampa forward Tiara Cook.
The senior took what appeared to be an accidental arm to the face and fell to the floor. Cook stayed down for a minute, but got to her feet and stayed in the game until the remaining starters were pulled. Jessee said she was “fine” afterwards and would be back for the team’s next outing.
The Spartans return Jan. 30 to take on Florida Tech at 2 p.m. at the Martinez Center. UT won the first meeting 75-57 in Melbourne.