Northwest Florida State rallies past TCC men for victory

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (January 15, 2013) – On Tuesday, Tallahassee Community College's men's basketball team found itself in familiar territory– in a tie game with seven minutes remaining.

On Saturday, Gulf Coast State College broke a 60-all tie with a 19-2 run en route to an 82-66 win. On Tuesday evening, the opponent was FCSAA No. 1 Northwest Florida State College. Unfortunately, it was a similar ending for the Eagles, as the Raiders snapped a 61-61 deadlock with eight unanswered points to pick up a 76-68 at the Bill Hebrock Eagledome.

Tallahassee (12-7) is now 0-3 in league play while the win kept Northwest Florida State (18-1, 4-0 PC) perfect through the first round of PC action.

Northwest Florida State's final offensive capped a rally from a 19-point first half deficit and was part of a 29-5 run over more than 13 minutes of the second half.

Elgin Cook broke the 61-all tie with a free throw at the 7:13 mark. The Raiders never trailed again and built as much as a ten-point lead in the final minute of the game.

Chris Jones scored 24 points to lead Northwest Florida State and was 16-of-21 from the free throw line. Cook added 19 points and Tevin Glass scored 10.

Early on, it was all Tallahassee. Marlon Johnson capped a 12-0 run to give the Eagles a 25-9 lead just past the halfway point of the first half.

After the Raiders got within ten (29-19), Tallahassee took off again, this time scoring nine of the game's next ten points. When Jarrod Batson hit a pair of free throws at the 2:54 mark, the Eagles had a 39-20 lead.

Northwest Florida State closed the half on a 10-2 run to cut Tallahassee's halftime lead to 41-30.

Tallahassee blistered the nets in the opening 20 minutes, hitting 16-of-28 shots (57.1 percent) and finished the game shooting 53.2 percent (25-of-47).

Northwest Florida State outscored Tallahassee from the foul line, 33-14, including 19-8 in the second half, part of a 46-27 scoring advantage in the second stanza.

C.J. Washington led a trio of Eagles in double-figures with 19 points. Johnson added 15 and Trevor McDade scored 11.

Tallahassee will try to get into the winner's column on Saturday evening when it travels to Pensacola State College for an 8:30 p.m. tip against the Pirates. The game will be carried by Panhandle Sports Broadcasting at www.PSBlive.com.