By: Dustin Kent - JCFloridan.com
The men started it off with a bang, and the women made it a clean sweep in Saturday's FCSAA Region VIII Tournament finale, as the No. 4 Chipola Lady Indians beat No. 7 Northwest Florida State 68-50 to give the school state championships for both the men and women.
It was the 31st victory of the season and the 19th in a row for Chipola, as well as the fourth consecutive win over the Lady Raiders, who fell to 24-6 and 0-4 against the Lady Indians.
The fourth meeting appeared for much of the way like it would come down right to the wire, as Northwest Florida State led by as much as seven in the first half and took a 33-29 lead into the halftime break.
The Lady Raiders maintained a slim lead through the first seven minutes of the second half, with a jumper by Tyshara Fleming making it 39-37.
That lead held until a pair of Rahni Bell free throws tied the game with 12:12 to play and sparked a decisive 23-7 Chipola run to blow the game open.
A three-point play by Brianna Wright gave the Lady Indians the lead for good at 10:21, with Tiffany Lewis and Bell knocking down back-to-back threes to make it 48-39 with just over nine minutes remaining.
Northwest called timeout and answered quickly with a basket by Fleming and a three-pointer from Simone Westbrook to cut the deficit back to four, but Chipola countered by running off 12 straight points to go up 14.
After two free throws from Evelyn Akhator, Lewis drilled another three, with two more from Akhator and two free throws from Wright making it 57-44 with 5:48 left.
Rudiane Eduardo hit a jumper for Northwest, but Lewis connected on another long ball to extend the lead to 14, and the freshman drained her fourth triple of the second half moments later to put Chipola up 63-48.
Lewis scored 14 of her game-high 19 points in the second half – to go along with five steals – to lead the Lady Indians, while Khadijah Ellison had 10 points, five rebounds, and three steals.
But the two biggest Chipola contributions may have come from two players who didn't reach double figure scoring, with Akhator grabbing 18 rebounds and adding three steals to her nine points, and point guard Diamonisha Sophus dishing out 12 assists to just three turnovers to go with her seven points.
Akhator was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player for averaging a double-double with 11.7 points and 12.3 rebounds, while Sophus was perhaps the breakout star of the tournament with 25 total assists to only five turnovers in the three games in Ocala.
Fleming finished with 16 points to lead Northwest Florida State, with Westbrook and Eduardo scoring 12 each.
But the Lady Raiders were held to just 17 points in the second half on seven made field goals, as the vaunted Chipola defense ratcheted up the pressure and slowed the NWF attack to a screeching halt.
The Lady Indians forced 28 turnovers on the game and limited Northwest to just 10 total free throws.
Chipola will next move on to the NJCAA Women's National Tournament in Salina, Kan., March 17-22.
With a resume that includes a 24-2 record against teams that aren't Chipola – with the two losses coming by a combined five points against state tournament teams Palm Beach State and Florida State College at Jacksonville – the Lady Raiders are almost assured of an at-large bid in the national tourney.