Eagles rally late to knock off Pensacola State

PENSACOLA, Fla. (February 1, 2020) – Tallahassee Community College's women's basketball team rallied from five down in the final three minutes to defeat Pensacola State College, 68-64, on Saturday evening. 

With the win, the Eagles moved back above .500, improving to 11-10 overall. The victory also pulled Tallahassee into a fourth-place tie in the league standings with Pensacola State (14-11) at 2-5. 

The host Pirates led 47-45 through three quarters and surged to a 59-54 lead on Kaiya Burnett's jumper with 3:19 left, but Tallahassee, despite having only seven active players, closed the game on a 14-5 run to steal the win. 

Kyra Smith's three-pointer capped a 7-0 run that took a little more than a minute and put the Eagles in front 61-59 with 1:56 remaining. Pensacola State scored the next three points to regain a 62-61 lead as the clock went under a minute, then the Eagles won the game at the free throw line. 

Just 10-of-18 from the line as a team at that point, Polina Nikulochkina hit one of two to tie the game at 62 with 52.8 seconds remaining. After Tallahassee got a defensive stop, Ana Nikulochkina drew a foul with 16.8 left and calmly hit both shots to put the Eagles in front. 

Tallahassee forced a turnover on the Pirates' ensuing possession and, again, Ana Nikulochkina knocked down two free throws to make it a two-possession game with 8.5 seconds left. 

Pensacola State called a timeout to advance the ball then needed less than two seconds to score and cut the Eagles' lead back to two. Following a timeout of its own to advance the ball, Tallahassee got the ball into the hands of Ana Nikulochkina, who clinched the game with two more free throws. 

All seven players got into the scoring column for Tallahassee, led by the Nikulochkina sisters and Sedayjha Payne with 13 points each. Payne also pulled down 11 rebounds for the double-double. 

Rita James came off the bench to score 12 points. 

Briana Chambers had eight points, five rebounds and four blocks. Smith had five points, including the big three late, and three rebounds. Rushell Jacob had four points and eight rebounds. 

The teams played to a 15-15 tie through one quarter before the Eagles took a 33-27 lead to the locker room. 

Tallahassee will host Gulf Coast State College at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.