Eagles end drought at NWF State

NICEVILLE, Fla. (January 11, 2020) – Tallahassee Community College's men's basketball team ended a near nine-year losing streak at Northwest Florida State College on Saturday, knocking off the Raiders, 76-66, in Panhandle Conference play. 

Tallahassee beat Northwest Florida State in its first-ever trip to then-newly-opened Raider Arena on January 29, 2011 – and by an almost identical score, 76-65. Since that night, the Eagles had dropped 12 straight games before ending the skid on Saturday to improve to 2-0 in PC play (18-2 overall). 

"Our guys are so mentally tough," said Tallahassee head coach Zach Settembre. "Every time they (Northwest Florida State) made a run, we stayed composed. Our preparation as a team went a long way towards victory and winning on the road in Niceville for the first time since 2011 is a tremendous feat for our guys. We have a long way to go and have a huge challenge head on Wednesday (against 2-0 Pensacola State)." 

The Raiders led by four points early but Tallahassee eventually wrestled away the lead and took a 39-34 advantage to the locker room. 

The Eagles opened up as much as a 13-point lead just under four minutes into the second half and successfully staved off any attempt of a Raider comeback. 

Another fruitful night from long distance keyed the victory. Tallahassee hit 7-of-13 three-point attempts in the first half and added six more in the second stanza, finishing 13-of-28 for the game. The Raiders, meanwhile, made just 3-of-14 threes. 

Eric Hester hit the decisive three-pointer in last Saturday's win against Chipola College, and he came up big again against the Raiders, knocking down five three-pointers and hitting 7-of-11 shots overall en route to a team-high 19 points. 

Tariq Silver added 15 points. DeAndre Gholston and Jordan Guest had 13 points each. 

Tallahassee will host Pensacola State College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in an early battle for first place in the PC standings. Pensacola State knocked off Chipola on Saturday evening, 74-73.