The Central Florida men's and women's basketball teams both advanced into the semi-final round of the Florida Community College Activities Association (FCCAA) state tournament.
With the young guards leading the way, CF's women's team advanced against Indian River State in a close 49- 44 victory early Wednesday afternoon. The men's team followed in the foot steps of the Lady Pats on Thursday with a 59-56 victory over Brevard. Both teams winning in their tournament opener made Central Florida the only school with both (men's and women's) teams in the final four.
The Lady Pats, coached by Cheryl Rice, had to face a heavily favored Pensacola Lady Pirates team, whocoincidently handed the Lady Patriots their worst loss of the year earlier in the season 88-50.
Midway into the first half, the score was all tied up at seventeen, but the Pirates' malicious full court press weakened the Lady Patriots' stride and caused multiple turnovers and out of control ball handling. At the half the Lady Pats trailed 53-31.
At the opening of the 2nd half, the Lady Pats displayed a strong half court trap defense that opened up a possible comeback. With help from Quinnecia Twine's efficient scoring effort, the Lady Pats brought the lead back down to fifteen.
The Pirates made an adjustment in order to stop the Pats from attacking the basket and to stop the comeback. Changing from their half court defense, bringing back their full court press was their new defensive set and this created problems for the Patriots.
With CF's obvious difficulty to get past the half court line, the Pirates began to take back their lead, causing turnovers and frustration. In the end, the amount of turnovers and fouls were over whelming and the Lady Pirates finished the game with a 96-71 victory over the Patriots, knocking them out of the tournament and allowing the Pirates to advance into the finals.
As far as Coach Tim Ryan's men's squad, the Patriots entered the Tournament ranked 3rd. The Pats were the highest ranked on their side of the bracket. With 1st and 2nd ranked teams on the other side, CF was looking to finish off Tallahassee and shine in the state finals.
Midway into the 1st half the score was in favor of the Patriots 13-7. While Kevin Foster, the Mid Florida Conference player of the year, displayed his ability to score and rebound with reaching a double-double, the Tallahassee Community College Eagles took the lead from the Patriots going into the half 24-22.
The Eagles came out of the half and had some foul trouble, allowing the Patriots to visit the foul line early and often in the 2nd half, with fifteen minutes still to play.
Mathaing Muo displayed his 2nd half talents scoring 6 straight for the Pats, but the hopes for the Patriots' began to fade as TCC pulled away with basket after basket.
CF, in the end missed one too many free throws and the Eagles handed the Pats their tournament loss, sending CF back to Marion County and allowing TCC to advance to the state finals. The final score was 59-49 Tallahassee over Central Florida.
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