GAMEDAY PREVIEW: #1 Lady Indians travel to Tallahassee looking to win season series
Chipola survived the most points scored against them this season in an 88-81 win the first time the two teams met.
MARIANNA, Fla. – For the first time since March 13 in the COVID-altered season of 2021, the Chipola Lady Indians will take the court as the number one team in NJCAA Division One Women's Basketball.
By virtue of their win last week against #10 Gulf Coast and losses to unranked teams by #1 New Mexico Junior College and #2 Northwest Florida, the Lady Indians (25-2; 7-2) moved up two slots to the top of the rankings released on Monday. The Raiders fell to #3 in the rankings and the Thunderbirds dropped three places to #4.
Chipola will travel to Tallahassee to take on the Lady Eagles (9-17; 1-9) at 4:15 PM CST on Wednesday, February 26. This game was originally scheduled to be the final time the two teams would face one another in the regular season. Unprecedented snow and ice, however, hit the Panhandle in mid-January causing the team's first meeting to be postponed until Monday, March 3.
The Lady Eagles have only Wednesday night's game and Monday's make-up game left on their schedule. Chipola will also play #3 Northwest Florida on Saturday in Marianna. Chipola will claim at least a share of the Panhandle Conference Championship with two wins this week and can claim the title outright by winning on Monday as well.
GAME INFORMATION
Time: 4:15 PM CST
Location: Bill Hebrock Eagledome
Streaming: #1 Chipola vs. Tallahassee State
KNOW YOUR OPPONENT
The Lady Eagles enter Wednesday night's conference game with a 1-9 record in Panhandle action. TSC won their first conference game since the 2021 season when they defeated Pensacola State, 62-48, on January 15.
In their first meeting with the Lady Indians on February 8, TSC scored the most points scored against Chipola this season in an 88-81 loss for the Lady Eagles. Leading by one at the end of the third quarter, Chipola scored 33 points in the final ten minutes at the Milton H. Johnson Center to escape the upset bid by the Lady Eagles. Tallahassee had four players score in double-digits in that game led by sophomore forward Zhaniah Ervin with 15.
The Lady Eagles are led in scoring by sophomore guard, Santianna Davy. The Toronto, Canada native averages 11.8 points in 24 games played this season.
Tallahassee is averaging 61.8 points per game and is shooting 34.6% from the floor, including 27.2% from behind the arc. The Lady Eagles are allowing their opponents 66.0 points per game.
GAME NOTES
- Chipola has defeated Tallahassee State the last 14 times the two teams met. The last Tallahassee victory came on January 25, 2020, when the Lady Eagles defeated Chipola at The Milt for Homecoming, 68-62. Chipola has not lost in Tallahassee since February 13, 2018 when the Lady Eagles completed a sweep of the Lady Indians in the 2017-2018 season.
- With a win against TSC on Wednesday night or next Monday, the Lady Indians will take their seventh consecutive season series against the Lady Eagles.
- Chipola is tied with Northwest Florida in the conference standings and Gulf Coast trails them both with three games to play. The Lady Commodores and Raiders face one another on Wednesday night and next Monday in Raider Arena. Along with the Raiders traveling to Chipola on Saturday, Gulf Coast will host Pensacola as the conference race winds down.
- To claim the conference title outright, Chipola needs to win one more game than the Raiders AND win at least as many games as the Lady Commodores in the final three games.
