#TCCBasketball: Eagle women down No. 7 NWF State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (February 20, 2019) – Once again in a virtual must-win scenario, Tallahassee Community College's women's basketball team delivered on Wednesday, defeating Northwest Florida State College, 69-51, on Sophomore Night at the Bill Hebrock Eagledome. 

NJCAA No. 9/Region 8 No. 3 Tallahassee is 24-5 overall, 6-5 in Panhandle Conference play. 

Tallahassee led virtually wire-to-wire on Wednesday. The Raiders scored the first basket of the game and Shania Meertens bucket gave them a brief 4-2 lead, but Daisha Bradford scored five unanswered points and the Eagles never trailed again. 

The Eagles led 16-12 after one quarter and outscored Northwest Florida State, 13-3, over the first 4:44 of the second to open up a 29-15 advantage. After the teams traded baskets, it was the Raiders who surged, outscoring the Eagles 11-2 over the final 4:22 to pull within 33-28 at the half. 

Tallahassee opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run, capped by a pair of Jada Perry free throws, for a 41-28 lead. Northwest Florida State never got closer than 10 the rest of the game. The Eagles allowed only nine points in the quarter and took a 50-37 lead to the fourth. 

Bradford scored in the paint at the 3:31 mark to keep the lead at 14 (60-46). She finished with 16 points. 

That turned out to be the Eagles' final basket of the night, as they put the game away at the free throw, hitting 9-of-10 the rest of the way and finished 24-of-33 for the game. 

The Raiders, meanwhile, made only 12-of-23 attempts from the charity stripe. 

Fittingly, it was the Eagles' sophomores who did most of the heavy lifting on Wednesday. 

Juliunn Redmond scored a game-high 17 and pulled down eight rebounds. Perry had 14 points and seven rebounds. Jamyra McChristine just missed a double-double, finishing with nine points and nine rebounds. 

Redmond, Perry, and McChristine, along with fellow sophomores Aliyah Lawson, Victoria Pearce, Tameria Johnson and Dai'Shona Washington-Polk, also walked off the floor with a piece of history, becoming the winningest sophomore class in school history. After a 29-win freshman campaign that culminated with the program's first national championship, the class now has 53 victories and can add one more when it travels to Pensacola State College for Saturday's regular season finale. 

Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. eastern.