GAINESVILLE, Fla. (December 9, 2017) – NJCAA No. 4/Region 8 No. 2 Tallahassee Community College withstood a furious second-half rally from Region 8 No. 10 Broward College, defeating the Seahawks, 90-85, on day one action at the Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout.
Tallahassee will carry an 11-1 record into Sunday's highly-anticipated showdown with NJCAA No. 10/Region 8 No. 4 Florida SouthWestern State College, who dropped its first game on the season on Saturday evening at the hands of NJCAA No. 7/Region 8 No. 3 Eastern Florida State College.
With Sunday's game looming against the Bucs, Tallahassee needed to rebound from Wednesday's upset loss at South Georgia Technical College. Consider the mission accomplished, albeit with some tense moments down the stretch.
The Eagles had complete control of the game for 29 minutes - Quentin Jackson's three-point play put Tallahassee in front, 71-49, with 10:59 left, and the lead was still 19 (75-56) at the 8:30 mark.
A couple minutes later, however, Shane Pearley's basket ignited a 10-0 run for Broward that ended with a bucket by Nicodemus Payne to cut the Eagles' lead to just six (82-76) with 2:30 remaining.
Tallahassee scored the next three points to all but snuff out the Seahawks' comeback bid.
Jacob Winston broke out of a shooting skid to lead the Eagles with 20 points. He hit 7-of-10 shots overall and 4-of-6 three pointers.
Javien Williams added 17. Jackson had 15, JaQuan Morris tossed in 13 and Corey Douglas scored 11.
After spotting Broward a 2-0 lead, Williams tied the game and Morris knocked down a three-pointer give the Eagles a 5-2 lead. They never trailed again.
Nine unanswered points pushed Tallahassee's lead to double-digits for the first time, 22-11 with 13:05 remaining in the half.
The Eagles scored the final four points of the half and led 49-35 at the break then added the first five points out of the locker room to extend their advantage to 19 (54-35).
