Lady Indians lose heartbreaker at National Tournament

The 16 seed Lady Indians lost in overtime in the Opening Round of the NJCAA Women's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday in Lubbock, Texas. Despite a 27 point effort from sophomore Jordan McLaughlin, Chipola fell to the 17 seed, Tyler Junior College, 67-65.

The first quarter in the postseason has not been kind to the Lady Indians and this was certainly the case on Wednesday as the Apaches raced out to a 19-10 lead after the first ten minutes of play. 

The start of the second quarter wasn't much kinder, as Tyler continued to add to its lead. With 3:40 remaining in the half, the Apaches hauled in one of their 29 offensive rebounds, to go up 25-13, their largest lead of the game.

Chipola fought back in the remaining minutes of the first half starting with a basket from behind the arc by Shcira Fowles to cut Tyler's lead down to single digits.

With less than a minute left before intermission, Tyler once again jumped out to a double digit lead, 32-22, and appeared to be headed to the locker room with a commanding lead. 

Jordan McLaughlin hit a pair of free throws to cut into the lead and followed with two more points courtesy of a steal by Latifa Amzil. Following an Apache turnover, the Lady Indians had a chance to cut the lead to four but Tyler forced a turnover as Jordan McLaughlin drove to the basket. 

The teams went to the locker room with Chipola trailing Tyler Junior College, 32-26. Both teams struggled from 3-point range in the first half with Fowles' long range shot being the only one to connect.

Tyler picked up right where they left off and buit their lead back to double digits, 37-26 with just under a minute played in the third quarter.

Fowles would score five of the next seven Chipola points. Her three-pointer with just over six minutes left in the quarter, pulled the Lady Indians to within four.  McLaughlin would tie the game, 39-39, two minutes later with a layup.

The teams exchanged buckets the remainder of the quarter and headed into the fourth quarters, Chipola and Tyler were knotted at 47.

Afer a little over a minute played in the fourth, Ladajah Huguley scored following a Ta'Shonna Wright-Gaskins steal to give the Lady Indians their first lead of the game, 49-47.

Once again the teams exchanged buckets but with 2:42 remaining in the game, Mia Andrews scored on a layup to give Chipola its largest lead of the game, 59-53.

After making only one 3-point basket the entire game, the Apaches hit two in the waning moments of regulation, including one as time was expiring, to make the score 59-59 and send the game into overtime.

With 1:17 left in the extra period, Jordan McLaughlin hit two free throws to put the Lady Indians up 65-64, in spite of losing two of their starters, Fowles and Wright-Gaskins, by virtue of picking up five fouls.

Rebounds doomed the Lady Indians throught the game as the Apaches hauled in 61 boards compared to Chipola's 40. It was an offensive rebound that sealed the Lady Indian's fate, as a put back layup gave Tyler a 66-65 lead and following a foul by McLaughlin, a chance at a three-point play.

The Apaches couldn't connect on the "and one" and following a Chipola rebound, Coach Greg Franklin called timeout with 8.2 seconds remaining. Following the timeout, McLaughlin drove the ball down the right side of the lane but ran into three Tyler defenders. Her shot was off to the right and was rebounded by the Apaches. 

After a foul on the rebound with 1.2 seconds left, Tyler made one of two free throws for the 67-65 win.

The Lady Indians end their season at 23-9 and made their first back-to-back appearance in the NJCAA Tournament since 2015.