The FMU women’s basketball team opened their season with a 65-35 win against the Erskine College Flying Fleet on Friday, Nov. 10.

Patriot senior Khai Chandler scored a game-high 23 points and became the first Patriot in seven years to surpass the 1,000-career point mark. Chandler became the 27th Patriot women’s basketball player in history to reach the milestone and now has a career total of 1,001 points.

Patriot senior Briana Burgins registered 18 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. Patriot junior Shaunice Fulmore posted 10 points and 12 rebounds in the display by the Patriots.

The Patriots started the game only allowing two ties in the first quarter and leading the remainder of the game. The Flying Fleet’s offense struggled, only scoring 11 points in the first half. The Patriots held a 20-point advantage at half time with the score at 31-11.

The dominating performance continued into the second half with the Patriots holding advantages as high as 39 points in the third quarter when the score was 55-16.

The Patriot cheer and dance squads performed during halftime, displaying routines for the new season. More than 550 people packed the Smith University Center to watch Friday’s season opening contest.

The contest against the Erskine College Flying Fleet opened the Patriot’s season as well as the Peach Belt Conference (PBC)/Conference Carolinas Women’s Basketball Challenge. This event is an out-of-conference series of games that puts teams from the PBC against teams from the Conference Carolinas. This year’s tournament featured FMU, University of North Georgia, Erskine College and North Greenville University. PBC teams only played teams from Conference Carolinas during the weekend competitions.

Coach Jeri Porter said she was happy with the performance she saw from the Patriots. She also said she was glad to see the Patriots bringing what they discuss in practice to the court.

“We were able to see a lot of the things we’ve been talking about in practices and in our two earlier scrimmages,” Porter said. “One of the things we’ve spoke about from our scrimmages is to put teams on the free throw line less. I was really pleased we did a solid job staying in front of the ball.”