Indians Rally to Win Panhandle Conference

By: Dustin Kent - JCFloridan.com

Before Saturday night's Panhandle Conference finale and de facto state tournament play-in game against No. 14 Northwest Florida State, Chipola coach Patrick Blake had a clear message for his team.

"I told them that we haven't gone through everything we've gone through this year for it to end here," he said.

"It's a feeling of relief, but mostly I'm just proud of the guys," Blake said. "It was a great win for us."

Sam Cassell, Jr. led the way for Chipola with 22 points and Carlos Morris added 21, while Bowers added nine points, nine rebounds, and three steals in his return.

Farad Cobb had 27 points for the Raiders on 11-of-16 from the field and 5-of-8 from the three-point line, but he scored just nine points after halftime thanks largely to the full-court ball denial defense played by Chipola sophomore Demetrious Floyd.

Cobb put on a show in the first half, making three deep triples and carrying the Raiders to a 41-33 halftime lead.

The margin went up to 10 with a quick basket by Xavier Moon to start the second half, but the Indians answered quickly with a 7-0 run capped by a straightaway three-pointer from Floyd to make it 43-40.

Back to back threes by Cobb and Benji Bell and a two-point bucket by Bell pushed the lead back to nine for Northwest, but the Indians again fought back, with McKay lobbing a pass to Bowers for a dunk followed by a triple from Morris to get Chipola back to within two at 53-51.

The Indians finally took their first lead of the second half after Floyd scored on a driving bucket and then found Bowers underneath the rim in transition for a dunk to make it 62-61 with 3:12 to play.

A floater in the lane by Morris put Chipola up three with 1:40 left and a driving score from Cassell, Jr. made it 66-61 with 57 seconds to play.

Things then turned ugly with the Indians up 6 when Bell committed a hard foul to the head of Cassell, Jr., who took offense to the play before Bell picked up the ball and threw it off of Cassell, Jr.

A scrum at midcourt ensued as officials and coaches from both teams scrambling to break it up, with a Northwest player grabbing the basketball from the bench and throwing it at Chipola players as well.

The result was three Raiders players – Bell, Michael Chandler, and Darnell Harris – all being ejected from the game and a technical being issued to Cassell, Jr., who made two free throws when play resumed to cap an 11-0 Chipola run to go up 69-61 with 22.5 seconds on the clock.

It was an ugly and potentially dangerous scene between the two archrivals, with Blake saying afterward that the emotions of the situation caused it to get out of control.

"With everything that was on the line in the game, I just think a couple of players lost their composure," he said. "You've got 19-20-year-olds playing for a title and sometimes their emotions can get the best of them. But that's not indicative of the kind of team that Northwest Florida State is or the kind of program that coach (Steve) DeMeo runs or the kind of program I run."

The Raiders' season ended with a record of 22-6, while the Indians (22-5) finished tied for first in the league standings at 8-4 with the Pensacola State Pirates (20-10), who beat Gulf Coast State 78-76 in overtime Saturday to earn their spot in the state tourney.