"A Ring Side Seat"

By Clint Cox

One of the privileges of covering local sports for the newspaper and radio is that it gives you a ringside seat to memorable moments. In the past 19 years of covering local sports on the radio and newspaper I certainly have had the privilege to witness many of those memorable moments.

I think back to the late 90’s and some of those thrilling wins for Marianna football that propelled them deeper into the playoffs and to a state championship appearance. I think back to some last inning wins that Bulldog baseball pulled off en route a state championship and several other final four appearances. Malone basketball provided numerous nail biters during their championship runs (five of them) in the mid 90’s. Bulldog basketball gave us a good run last year as well. And Chipola basketball, baseball and softball have done their fair part in loading up my memory bank with memorable moments.

I had another ring side seat this past Saturday night for a memorable moment. Chipola was on the road playing Tallahassee. After leading at the half the Indians fell behind in the second half. In the last two minutes the game was nip and tuck. Tallahassee took a 3 point lead with less than 10 seconds to play so the Indians had one more chance. Gary Flowers missed a three point shot with seconds to play, but the ball bounced straight to Malcolm Armstead at the top of the key. He launched a long range bomber as the buzzer sounded and it was nothing but net. That tied the game and sent it into overtime, of which Chipola won 86-81.

Now the finish was memorable enough. But the most memorable thing about this game was the performance of Chipola guard Casey Mitchell. He finished the night with 37 points, 25 of which came from the free throw line. The memorable moment is that he made 25 out of the 26 free throws that he shot. In fact, he was 25-25 from the free throw line before missing his last attempt with only a second to play.

I’ve watched a lot of basketball in my life and I don’t ever recall watching anyone make 25 straight free throws in a single game. It easily broke the old Chipola record of total free throws made in one game, which was 18 (Stefhon Hannah in 2005). Bobby Paschal hit 15-15 free throws in 1962 for the record on shooting percentage (1.000%). According to my research, Mitchell’s performance broke the previous NJCAA record of 23 free throws without a miss in a single game (Sam Watson, Southwestern Michigan College 1968-69). The NCAA record is 35. The NBA record is 23 consecutive (Dominique Wilkins – 1992) and the old ABA record is also 23 (Rick Berry - 1969).

Simply Put, it was another memorable moment and I had a ring side seat.

From the front porch: Coach said life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you respond to it.