NICEVILLE, Fla. – For the 18th time in school history and the third time in the last four years, the Chipola Indians won the Region VIII/FCSAA State Championship and will advance to the NJCAA Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas on March 24-30.
The Indians defeated Panhandle Conference rival, Northwest Florida, 50-48, on the Raiders' home floor for the third time this season to win the championship.
Joshua "Greedy" Williams led Chipola with 14 points. The First Team All-Conference and All-State performer was named to the All-Tournament team and received the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Antonio Baker Jr. & Jerald Colonel joined Williams on the All-Tournament Team. Both players scored ten points in the Indian's victory.
For the third time in four years, Chipola head coach Donnie Tyndall was named the FCSAA Coach of the Year.
Defense sets the tone early
When the two rivals met nearly one month prior at Raider Arena, Chipola took down the #6 Raiders, 45-41. The first half of the championship game sent the message that this game was going to be similar in scoring.
The first two points of the game did not come until more than two minutes had been played. Although the Raiders' Tajuan Simpkins was credited with the bucket, the Indians' Miles Ndalama tipped the ball in while fighting for the rebound.
Chipola took it's first lead of the game, 5-4, on an Antonio Baker Jr. three-pointer with just under five minutes played. That three was part of a 14-2 run that Chipola what would be their largest lead of the game at 16-6. Northwest Florida's bucket was their only points during a ten-minute span.
The Raiders pulled to within one, 20-19, on a Tyrese Elliott layup but the Indians closed out the half with a 5-0 run to take a 25-19 into the locker room.
Halftime leads turn into wins
Entering the championship game, Chipola was 20-0 on the season when leading at the half.
The Raiders would challenge that stat with a 10-2 run that included back-to-back triples that put the Indians down two with just two and a half minutes off the clock.
After a jump shot from Chipola's Baker tied the game at 29, the Raiders once again went on a 10-2 that was also capped off by a Simpkins three pointer. Simpkins went on to lead all scorers in the game with 16 points.
With their largest lead of the game at 39-31, and just over 13 minutes remaining in the game, those wearing red began dreaming of cutting down the nets on their home floor for the second straight year.
Those dreams turned into nightmares as Chipola held the Raiders scoreless for the next nine minutes of the game while scoring 14 points of their own.
Chipola scored 8 of their 14 points during the run at the rim where they dominated the Raiders the entire game. The Indians outscored the Raiders 26-16 in the paint despite being outrebounded 44-28. Baker capped off the 14-0 run with his second three pointer of the night and Chipola led by 6 with just over four minutes between the Indians and another championship.
The Raiders did not go away, however, as RaSheed Jones hit a pair of shots from behind the arc with a layup from Chipola's Williams sandwiched between. With three minutes remaining, Chipola was clinging to a 47-45 lead.
Following a timeout by the Raiders, Chipola scored their biggest bucket of the game. With the shot clock down to single digits, Williams drove down the left side of the lane, drawing a double team. Just steps in front of the baseline, Williams flipped the ball backwards to J.J. Walton, standing in front of the goal, who flipped it in for a 49-45 lead with 2:45 remaining. The bucket would be the Indians' last field goal of the game.
Neither team would get a bucket until under a minute remaining in the game. Following a no call on a tackle of Williams that resulted in a backcourt violation, the Raiders' Rasheed Jones, with two Chipola defenders in his face, once again buried a three from the top of the arc with 30 seconds remaining.
With a 49-48 lead, Chipola advanced the ball to midcourt and called timeout. Coming out of the timeout the Raiders committed their sixth team foul forcing Chipola to inbound the ball once again in front of their bench.
With 15.3 seconds remaining on the clock, Williams got the ball in to Walton who was quickly fouled, sending him to the line for the one and one.
Walton missed the first free throw and the Raiders grabbed the rebound and quickly moved down the court. With four seconds left on the clock, Tyrese Elliott's floater from the left side was partially blocked by Jerald Colonel and A.J. Barnes came down with the ball and was fouled.
Barnes made the first of the one and one but the second one came of the back of the iron into the hands of the Raiders' Jones with 3.2 seconds remaining.
Jones' desperation shot from beyond midcourt came up short giving Chipola their 18th Region VIII/State Championship, the most of any school in the state of the Florida.
Game Notes
- Chipola defeated Northwest Florida three times this season in Raider Arena. The three games were decided by a total of nine points. Chipola is now 12-4 against the Raiders under Coach Donnie Tyndall.
- With the three wins in the State Tournament, Chipola is 15-3 inside Raider Arena under Coach Tyndall.
- Chipola is now 21-0 on the season when leading at the half.
- Chipola and Northwest Florida have won six of the last seven FCSAA/Region VIII Championships.
- Chipola receives the automatic bid to the NJCAA Tournament but the Raiders are expected to receive an at-large bid to the tournament as well. It is also expected that either Eastern Florida State College, who lost in the semifinals to the Raiders, or Daytona State, who lost in the first round to Tallahassee, will get an at-large bid.
- The seedings and pairings for the NJCAA Tournament will be announced on the NJCAA Network on Sunday night at 6 PM CT.
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