Indians Push Past St. Petersburg: Get Road Win

December 8, 2007

By Chipola Staff

In just its second true road contest of the season, the Chipola Indians came away with an 84-65 win over St. Petersburg on Saturday afternoon, improving to 14-0 on the season.

“You learn a lot about your team when you play on the road,” said Chipola coach Greg Heiar. “I thought we did some good things, but we also have to get better in some areas as we move forward. We can’t afford to relax and to take possessions off. Those things can come back to beat you.”

Chipola built an early 15-6 lead, connecting on three 3pt field-goals in the opening minutes. However, sloppy play and five turnovers during the Indians next seven trips, allowed the Titans to cut the advantage to 17-12 midway through the opening half.

The lead stayed near single digits for most of the next fifteen minutes, with each team battling possession for possession.

“They (St. Petersburg) hung right in their,” said Heiar. “We were not doing a good job of stopping penetration, which was leading to some easy baskets for them. A lot of it was just defensive effort. We weren’t playing with enough passion and energy.”

The Indians used a spirited halftime discussion to help reenergize their effort. After leading 39-32 at the break, Chipola used their defense to produce transition offense, scoring on back-to-back possessions to start the half.

The Titans would hang around until the 13:00 minute mark of the game. That’s when Chipola used a 15-5 run to push the lead to 19 points, building a 66-47 advantage.

“What we are looking for is better consistency,” said Heiar. “We shouldn’t be a team that has to get chewed out to perform up to our capability. We have too many good kids for that to be the case.”

Chipola was led by sophomore Mario Little, who scored a game high 22 points and had 9 rebounds.

Freshmen Casey Mitchell and Gary Flowers, added 15 and 11 points in the win.

Flowers also hauled in 7 rebounds and added 5 blocks for the unbeaten Indians.

Chipola, ranked #1 in the country, resumes action December 15 and 16 in Gainesville, FL as part of the Florida Shootout. They will take on Seminole on Saturday and Palm Beach on Sunday. Both games will be played at 7:00 pm CST.