TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (January 15, 2013) – On Tuesday, Tallahassee Community College’s men’s basketball team found itself in familiar territory– in a tie game with seven minutes remaining.
On Saturday, Gulf Coast State College broke a 60-all tie with a 19-2 run en route to an 82-66 win. On Tuesday evening, the opponent was FCSAA No. 1 Northwest Florida State College. Unfortunately, it was a similar ending for the Eagles, as the Raiders snapped a 61-61 deadlock with eight unanswered points to pick up a 76-68 at the Bill Hebrock Eagledome.
Tallahassee (12-7) is now 0-3 in league play while the win kept Northwest Florida State (18-1, 4-0 PC) perfect through the first round of PC action.
Northwest Florida State’s final offensive capped a rally from a 19-point first half deficit and was part of a 29-5 run over more than 13 minutes of the second half.
Elgin Cook broke the 61-all tie with a free throw at the 7:13 mark. The Raiders never trailed again and built as much as a ten-point lead in the final minute of the game.
Chris Jones scored 24 points to lead Northwest Florida State and was 16-of-21 from the free throw line. Cook added 19 points and Tevin Glass scored 10.
Early on, it was all Tallahassee. Marlon Johnson capped a 12-0 run to give the Eagles a 25-9 lead just past the halfway point of the first half.
After the Raiders got within ten (29-19), Tallahassee took off again, this time scoring nine of the game’s next ten points. When Jarrod Batson hit a pair of free throws at the 2:54 mark, the Eagles had a 39-20 lead.
Northwest Florida State closed the half on a 10-2 run to cut Tallahassee’s halftime lead to 41-30.
Tallahassee blistered the nets in the opening 20 minutes, hitting 16-of-28 shots (57.1 percent) and finished the game shooting 53.2 percent (25-of-47).
Northwest Florida State outscored Tallahassee from the foul line, 33-14, including 19-8 in the second half, part of a 46-27 scoring advantage in the second stanza.
C.J. Washington led a trio of Eagles in double-figures with 19 points. Johnson added 15 and Trevor McDade scored 11.
