Baker-Mazara Hits 6 3s, NWF extends Winning Streak to 6

Panama City, Fla. - Northwest Florida Raiders needed more than 40 minutes to pull out a win tonight as the Raiders came away with a 77-69 victory over the Gulf Coast Commodores in Panama City on Wednesday night. The Raiders notch their 20th win of the season, 6th win in the conference.

Coach DeMeo's squad came out very flat to start the game this evening as the Raiders did not score a point for the first 4 1/2 minutes of the game. At the first media timeout, NWF was down 16-4. Northwest Florida turned it around and was able to go into intermission down 27-23, shooting 11-34 (32.4%) from the field. 

In the second half, Northwest Florida came out with a different mentality and scored the first 6 points of the half to take a 29-27 lead. The Raider defense stepped up after halftime, forcing 16 second-half turnovers, 27 on the night. The game went back and forth throughout the entire second half and with the score knotted at 62 a piece with 30.9 seconds left, the Raiders dribbled the clock down to 8 seconds and found Kasean Pryor open in the far corner for an open 3. The shot bounced off the rim and the Raiders and Commodores were heading to overtime.

At the start of overtime, Chad Baker-Mazara hit back-to-back 3s to give the Raiders a 6-point advantage and NWF never looked back from that point on, cruising to an 8-point victory. Baker-Mazara chipped in a team-high 22 points on the night, 20 of those coming in the second half and 6-9 from beyond the arc. Collin Warren had 16 points followed by Taryn Todd at 14 and Tavion Banks with 13. 

Northwest Florida (20-6, 6-2) will face the Chipola Indians on Saturday, February 11th in Marianna for their 3rd showdown of the season. The Raiders and Indians have split the last 2 matchups, with the home team winning in both games. In the first game, Chipola squeaked out a 75-74 win and in the 2nd game, NWF pulled out a 63-53 win. #8 Chipola (24-2, 6-2) picked up a huge victory over #6 Tallahassee tonight, beating the Eagles 82-57. With the Chipola win tonight, there is now a 3-way tie for 1st place in the Panhandle Conference.

For more information on Northwest Florida Athletics, visit NWFRaiders.com or follow @NWFRaiders on Twitter and Instagram.