Commodores fall short in final as Indians capture 1st state title in 6 years

NICEVILLE — On Friday, Gulf Coast was able to pull off a monumental upset over a Panhandle Conference power that had its number during the regular season. On Saturday, the Commodores fell short of repeating that feat. 

No. 2 seed Chipola finished off a dominant run through the FCSAA State Tournament with a 55-45 victory over the No. 4 seed Commodores to take its first region championship in six years. 

The Indians (18-4) won the national championship that year and will get a chance to add another banner to their collection with an automatic bid to the national tournament in Lubbock, Tex., April 19-24. 

The Commodores (12-9) will also likely get to make the trip to Lubbock with an at-large bid, though they had to wait for Sunday's NJCAA tournament selection show to find out for sure. 

Chipola left no doubt as its postseason fate, but the Indians did have to work hard to secure Saturday's win. Gulf Coast led 14-10 early in the second quarter before Chipola took over, outscoring the Commodores 20-5 over the final eight minutes of the half. 

A pair of free throws and a fastbreak layup by DeMyla Brown put Chipola up for good at 19-16, with a short jumper by Ta'Shonna Wright-Gaskins and a layup on an off-ball cut by Shimei Muhammad making it 30-19 at the break. 

Gulf Coast quickly cut into the lead with the first six points of the second half featuring a 3-pointer by Cabria Lewis and an inside bucket by Sarah Matthews, but a pair of driving baskets by Brown and a transition two from Jordan McLaughlin pushed the lead back into double digits at 36-25. 

The Commodores struggled to keep pace with leading scorer Nia Daniel taking herself out of the game at halftime, according to coach Cayla Petree, after struggling with a sore foot through a scoreless first half. 

A jumper by Muhamman extended the lead to 48-33 early in the fourth quarter, but the Commodores slowly chipped away at the deficit with a 9-1 run featuring a pair of baskets by Ndeye Ciss followed by a short bank shot by Lewis and a 3-pointer by Lewis to make it 51-45 with 2:37 to play. 

The Commodores didn't score again, however, with McLaughlin scoring on a driving layup on the next Chipola possession and Gulf Coast turning the ball over on a shot clock violation with 1:48 remaining. 

It wasn't the ending that Gulf Coast was hoping for, though Petree said she was proud of the effort and resiliency of her players, particularly in the second half. 

"I thought the kids that played (in the second half) played their hearts out. They played as hard as they could play," she said. "Chipola is a great basketball team. Getting outscored 20-7 in that second quarter really killed us."

Brown finished with 19 points and seven rebounds to lead Chipola, with Isadora Sousa adding 12 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Muhammad added nine points and nine rebounds. 

Lewis led Gulf Coast with 13 points, while Ciss finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Outside of Lewis and Ciss, the other six Commodores combined to shoot just 7 of 36 from the field. 

Despite the loss, the Commodores almost certainly did enough in the state tournament to ensure that their season will continue in Lubbock. Considering that the Commodores finished the regular season with just eight available players and played the second half of the state final with only seven, Petree said her team had much to be proud of. 

"Absolutely, just to continue to get better over the court of the year, and we obviously lost some players to injury and discipline, and you had the whole factor of COVID and it was a stressful season physically and mentally on these kids," she said. "I think they showed a lot of toughness and resolve and I'm really proud of them. I couldn't be prouder of the fight in that second half. 

"We were trying to make it work and hold it together and we managed to be plus-1 in the second half against a really good basketball team. A couple of the girls were crying after the game and I told them, 'no, this is great. You're playing great at the right time.' Chipola is as good as anyone in the country. To come beat Northwest Florida State on their homecourt, that's unbelievable. It's a huge accomplishment."