Titans Fall to Chipola in Tournament's First Round

Defending national champion Chipola College raced to a 26-6 first-quarter lead en route to defeating Eastern Florida's women's basketball team 85-46 in Thursday's first round of the NJCAA Region 8/FCSAA Tournament at the College of Central Florida in Ocala.

Eastern Florida, the FCSAA Southern Conference champion, finished its season at 20-10. Panhandle Conference runner-up Chipola improved to 24-4 and moves to Friday's semifinals.

Chipola scored the game's first six points and built a 24-4 lead with 2 minutes and 50 seconds to play in the opening quarter.

The Titans couldn't find their footing, trailing 38-18 at halftime and 58-32 after three quarters.

"It's a tough way to end," said Eastern Florida head coach Jim Grimes. "I feel bad for the sophomores. They've accomplished so much. I don't want them to feel like a game like tonight's takes away from everything else they've done."

The Titans captured two straight Southern Conference championships, reached the Region 8/FCSAA Tournament two straight times and recorded two straight 20-win seasons, finishing 22-8 in 2014-2015. They also lost just three games on their Titan Field House home court, going 23-3.

"Tonight was not good," Grimes said. "It doesn't change my belief in the kids I have. We got our tail kicked by a team that was better than us. That happens every now and then. You learn from it and you get better from it. Hopefully that's what we'll do."

Freshman Trudy Walker led the Titans with 12 points while sophomore Paola Vasquez added 11. Walker had seven rebounds.

Chipola forced the Titans into 21 turnovers, converting them into 30 points. The Indians also out-rebounded the Titans 47-32 and shot 44.4 percent from the floor to 32.7 for the Titans.

In other news, the Titans placed three sophomores on the All-Southern Conference first team, Vasquez, Nene Johnson and Crystal Townsend. Sophomore Emma Grimes and Walker and classmate Kienya Jones were second team selections.