Indians use strong second half to defeat the Raiders

Chipola bench explodes following a 3-pointer by Jaeden Zackery. Zackery finished the night with 21 points. | photo courtesy of Joseph Daniel Williams
Chipola bench explodes following a 3-pointer by Jaeden Zackery. Zackery finished the night with 21 points. | photo courtesy of Joseph Daniel Williams

The Indians picked up an important conference win on Saturday and advanced their home winning streak to ten games as they defeated Northwest Florida State College, 72-60.

Freshman guard Jaeden Zackery scored a season-high 21 points including going 12-for-13 from the free throw line to help even the Indians record in Panhandle Conference play to 2-2. The Raiders dropped to 1-3 in conference play and 4-5 overall.

In the first half there were five lead changes with the Raiders leading by as many as nine at one point. The Indians would capture the lead with under one minute remaining in the half on Carlos Lemus's reverse layup. As the teams went to the locker room, the Indians were up 34-32.

The Indians would fall behind early in the second half but battled back to capture the lead with under ten minutes remaining in the game. The Indians were 11-for-11 from the free throw line in the second half and 19-for-21 for the game. The Chipola men would get their biggest lead of the game in the final minute on Carlos Lemus's three-pointer that proved to be the dagger.

Kris Gardner and Carlos Lemus joined Zackery in double figures on the night. Gardner was 3-for-4 from three point range and added two free throws to match his season high of 11 points. Lemus added 10 for the Indians.

Chipola (7-3; 2-2 PC) will host Gulf Coast State College on Wednesday night at 7:30.

 

From Coach Tyndall

"I was pleased with our guard play tonight. I thought we did a nice job of keeping those guys off the glass. They have a long athletic team and I thought our guys competed for 40 minutes."