Defense leads the Raiders to a 54-50 victory over Pensacola

NICEVILLE, FL - The Lou Ross Center in Pensacola has routinely been a difficult gym for Northwest Florida to find offensive explosions. That trend continued on Saturday, with baskets hard to come by from Raiders all night long.  Thankfully for NWF, however, their defense returned the favor to the host Pirates as the home team found it equally difficult to score.  In the end, it was the Raiders, who led nearly the entire game, that made enough plays down the stretch to escape Pensacola with a 54-50 victory.  The win moves Northwest Florida to 23-2 overall and 7-1 in the Panhandle. 

The first portion of the game looked like it might be a night where NWF is clicking on all cylinders.  The defense was flying around, dunks were abundant, and 3-pointers were falling.  Pensacola, however, put the brakes on the Raider runaway with terrific defense and their offense began to make some noise late in the first half.  The Pirate run to close the half gave them momentum that seemingly carried over for the rest of the game. 

The Raider offense had difficulty finding their rhythm.  A few highlights were sprinkled in with a largely stagnant second half.  Head coach Greg Heiar knew they had to continue to make life tough for the Pirates when they possessed the ball, and they did just that, limiting PSC to just 50 points on 35% shooting.  That defensive effort allowed the Raiders to keep the Pirates at bay, no pun intended, for the rest of the game in route to the road win for NWF.

With the win, the Raiders maintain their first-place standing in the Panhandle after the completion of Round 2 in league play.  Round 3 for NWF will begin when they next take the floor, which will be on Saturday, February 5 at 4:00 p.m.

For more information on Northwest Florida State athletics, visit NWFRaiders.com or follow @NWFRaiders on Twitter.