By: James Phillips
January 29, 2017
With a great team effort the 14th ranked Lady Pirates were able to take down the 18th ranked Northwest Florida State Raiders, 83-75 in an exciting overtime win. Five different players registered points in double figures for the Lady Pirates as they were able to earn their second conference win of the season. Xana Dove led the Lady Pirates in both points and rebounds last night, earning herself a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Meanwhile Ahyiona Vason continues to provide some of the most reliable point guard play in the conference, if not the country, with 10 points and leading the game in assists with 7. Autumn Jones came off of the bench and provided solid play for the Lady Pirates, scoring 12 points while grabbing 6 rebounds in addition to getting 3 steals and a block in the process.
This was set to be a hard fought game for the Lady Pirates considering they just got done with such a difficult stretch of top 5 games, including one against the #1 ranked team. Northwest Florida State snuck back into the game and was able to force overtime last night. Our Lady Pirates dominated the overtime period, scoring 13 to their 8, and that was exactly what we needed to see out of them. Each conference game for the rest of the season could end up being the deciding factor in the Lady Pirates ability to reach post-season play considering how tight the Panhandle Conference is. With this win the Lady Pirates move into fourth place in the conference, only needing to move up two more spots to gain access to the district tournament.
