Chipola Takes Down Tallahassee: Opens League Play
January 5, 2008
By Chipola Staff
Sophomore Mario Little and freshman Gary Flowers led an energetic Indian effort on Saturday evening, propelling top ranked Chipola to an 86-58 win over the Tallahassee Eagles.
Little scored a game high 22 points on nine of eleven shooting, including two of three from beyond the three-point line. He also added five rebounds while only playing 19 minutes, caused by sitting much of the first half in foul trouble.
Flowers ended with 21 points and 10 rebounds, as the Indians moved to 19-0 on the year and 1-0 in Panhandle play.
“I thought our depth was an important factor in tonight’s game,” said Chipola coach Greg Heiar. “We came out wanting to attack them and utilize our bench.”
Chipola’s bench outscored Tallahassee’s 28-5 on the night, helping the Indians push a nine point halftime advantage to twenty-eight with 9:03 to play.
Defensively, the key was shutting down Tallahassee’s Jermaine Dixon. The super sophomore had 31 points last season in the first meeting between the two squads, a double overtime game that was won by the Eagles in Marianna.
However, tonight was a much different scenario. Sophomore Mario Edwards and freshman Vernon Teel bottled up Dixon for much of the night, causing Tallahassee’s leading scorer to connect on just four of nineteen shots from the field.
Although Dixon managed a team high 21 points for Tallahassee, 13 of which were at the foul line, 8 of those points were scored when the game’s outcome was already mostly determined.
“I was very pleased with Mario (Edwards) and Vernon,” said Heiar. “They forced him into contested shots and didn’t give him many easy looks.”
“But equally as important to defending a player of Dixon’s caliber is the help defenders,” added Heiar. “I thought Joey Cameron, although he didn’t have a great stat line, had a huge impact on this game. He blocked some shots. He altered some shots. And he was in great helpside defense all night long.”
Chipola also received a spark from sophomore Malik Alvin and freshman Casey Mitchell. Each came off the bench to score 9 points. Mitchell was three of five from the three-point line.
The Indians outrebounded Tallahassee 54-30 on the night, including 20 offensive rebounds for Chipola.
Next up for Chipola is #19 Okaloosa-Walton on Saturday, January 12th. The Red Raiders are 15-1 (1-0) on the season after having defeated Gulf Coast 73-62 on Saturday. The match-up can be seen live via webcast at 7:30 pm CST.