NWF State men ranked No. 1, women No. 6

NICEVILLE — The NJCAA basketball pollsters sure do love Northwest Florida State.

Steve DeMeo's 12-0 men were labeled the best team in the land in Tuesday's rankings.

Bart Walker's 11-0 women are No. 6, hot on the heels of Panhandle Conference foes Gulf Coast State and Tallahassee.

The statement, albeit only six weeks into non-conference slate, is loud: Both crews are national title contenders.

But their paths to the undefeated ranks have been disparate.

For the men, who've outscored foes by a nightly margin of 93-72, they handled their first brush with adversity well in New York City.

A 108-100 win over 24th-ranked Harcum began the showcase at Monroe College. Then, with a different starting lineup, the Raiders survived a 99-93 thriller over Harcum before beating Monroe 90-72 to cap the 3-0 trip to the Big Apple.

"Over the course of the season you're going to face some ups and downs, and in those down moments you'll learn a lot about the team," said DeMeo, who three seasons ago led the Raiders to a national title. "The adversity we faced is great. We put ourselves in three or four bad situations down the stretch that we could have handled better, but in the end we overcame them.

"That's a testament to our guys."

The mistakes led to coughing up a four-point lead with under 20 seconds to play in regulation. Suddenly the Raiders were staring at overtime after a turnover, a foul 30 feet from the basket and, up 3 in the closing seconds, a buzzer-beating 3 that could've been avoided had they fouled instead.

"We'll be in those situations again, so this is a good teaching moment," DeMeo said.

Paced by Andres Feliz's 19.7 points a night, the Raiders have four players averaging double-digit points. Tray Boyd III is averaging 16 points, Chris Duarte 11.5 and Kelvin Robinson 10.5.

The depth has fueled the No. 1 ranking, a milestone the Raiders welcome but aren't allowing to inflate their ego.

"We play the game to be the best team, the best organization," DeMeo said. "It's great recognition for the school, for my players and it's a credit to the administration. We work hard every day to get to this level, but it’s only Dec. 6th. We have a long way to go and we have to keep the guys laser focused."

Laser focused would be a good way to describe Walker's crew.

Adversity? Psh, the women are outscoring foes 85-41. No team has played the Raiders to within single digits, the closest a 70-52 win over Eastern Florida State College defeated on the road on Dec. 2.

"We're very happy with our start to the season," Walker said. "Our young ladies are getting rewarded for a lot of the hard work they put in each and every day."

While too early to tell, the stats speak of a team that can shake off last year's Panhandle Conference struggles and compete with top-ranked Gulf Coast State, fifth-ranked Tallahassee, 10th-ranked Pensacola State and 19th-ranked Chipola.

Paced by Trinity Baptiste's 14.3 points per game, the Raiders are shooting 52.3 percent from the floor and 44 percent from beyond the arc. Georgia Gayle follows with 13. 6 points a night, Jade Lewis 13.1 and Awa Trasi 8.9.

A catalyst for the scoring efficiency is a defense delivering 17.1 steals per game, forcing 23 turnovers a night and limiting foes to 29.6 percent shooting from the floor.

Of course those numbers will change a little come January with the start of the Panhandle Conference, which features four top-ten teams and all five in the top 20.

"Obviously we definitely have the best conference in the country in terms of women's basketball," Walker said. "We respect every team. Each and every night it's going to be a battle.

"We're just trying to continue to get better and absorb a few new things every day. The players are starting to understand more and more about what it takes to play in the Panhandle. We only have two players that have experienced that, so that's going to be a wake-up call. But it's something we look forward to."