#TCCBasketball: Heartbreaking loss ends Eagles’ season

LUBBOCK, Texas (March 21, 2017) – An epic comeback turned total heartbreaker. That's how Tallahassee Community College's women's basketball season ended on Tuesday evening. 

After trailing No. 10 seed Shelton (Ala.) State Community College by as many as 20 points, seventh-seed Tallahassee rallied and led by five with 1:06 left in the game, only to lose 79-78 in the round of 16 at the NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship. 

Tallahassee's season ends at 23-8. 

The Eagles appeared poised to escape the opening round after an 8-2 run yielded a 78-73 lead with 2:59 left. After forcing a turnover, Tallahassee misfired twice but collected a pair of offensive rebounds to take the game clock under 90 seconds. 

With the shot clock winding down, Janessa Murphy's three-pointer rimmed in and out, but Shelton State couldn't convert on the other end and was forced to foul with 1:06 left. 

That's when things got interesting. 

Shelton State's Savannah Reier fouled Jas Hill on the inbounds pass, but Hill reacted with contact in the head area, deemed a flagrant two foul – and immediate ejection – by the officiating crew. 

Reier hit both free throws, Shelton got possession and Cierra Johnson hit one of two from the line to pull the Bucs within a bucket, 78-76. 

After Shelton State forced a shot clock violation, Johnson got back to the free throw line with 11.9 seconds on the clock. Again, she hit one of two, leaving the Eagles with a one-point lead. 

Needing to foul or force a turnover, Shelton State got the latter when Johnson picked off a pass from Murphy, collected her own missed shot and drew a foul with 2.3 seconds left. 

This time, Johnson hit both to put Shelton State in front 79-78. 

Following a timeout, Tallahassee advanced the ball into the frontcourt but an errant pass on the inbounds ran out the clock on the game and the Eagles' hopes at a national championship. 

"I thought we had taken their best punch…and we withstood things well, but they made some smarter plays in the end," said Tallahassee head coach Franqua "Q" Bedell. 

"We started hitting shots and creating some turnovers that made them speed up the game…and we had to execute some things down the stretch, but we made some mistakes by not taking care of the basketball." 

Mistakes were plentiful for Tallahassee early on. At one point, the Eagles had six turnovers and just one field goal attempt. The end result: a 24-10 first-quarter deficit. 

Shelton State increased its lead to 30-10 two minutes into the second quarter and, with Lawriell Wilson saddled to the bench with three personal fouls, things looked grim for the Eagles. 

But a 9-2 run sparked Tallahassee, and the Eagles eventually went to the half trailing 39-27. 

Tallahassee came out firing in the third. 

Five three-pointers fueled a 36-point quarter, one that saw Tallahassee take its first lead of the game, 61-60, on Japonica James' basket with 24 seconds left in the quarter. After Shelton State scored on its ensuing possession, Murphy drew a foul on a desperation heave at the buzzer and knocked down two of three free throws to give the Eagles a 63-62 lead. 

Murphy, one of five sophomores on the roster, finished with 21 points off the bench to lead Tallahassee. 

Wilson, despite the foul trouble, scored 18 in the final game of her record-breaking career. 

Hill had 14 and James, 10.