Walker, Northwest Florida State dispatch of Shelton State

Lubbock, TX - Ranking in the top 20 in scoring defense and in the top 30 in scoring offense in the country coming into the 2023 NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship, Northwest Florida State College presents matchup issues all across the board.

Teams usually can try to shut down either the Raiders' 3-point shooting or, if they can match up inside, try to slow down NWF's inside game. Rarely can a team do both at the same time. Shelton State Community College sure couldn't.

Destiney McPhaul and Zayla Tinner combined for 29 points and a trio of 3-pointers, and 6-foot-5 center Sakima Walker added a team-high 16 points as the No. 8 seed Raiders dispatched of No. 9 seed Shelton State 59-51 in the second round of the tournament Thursday at the Rip Griffin Center.

"I think once we started playing our high-low basketball it created a lot of options for us," Northwest Florida head coach Bart Walker said. "That's what you want as a coach is to have multiple weapons and when you've got some size and some people that can score from the perimeter it makes them stay honest. We've got a lot of weapons and we have to use them."

McPhaul finished with 15 points and Tinner added 14 for the Raiders, who advance to face No. 1 seed South Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Shelton had no one to match Walker's length inside, and the sophomore took advantage by hitting seven of her nine shots in the game. When Shelton did get a stop on her, however, McPhaul and Tinner were right there, waiting at the 3-point arc.

"It couldn't be possible without my teammates, they're the ones out there getting me the ball," Sakima Walker said. "I just feel like it was us moving the ball as a team and finding the next open play that made it happen."

Nya Valentine tried to keep Shelton State in the game with her 20 points and four 3-pointers, but only one other player (Maya Cunningham) for the Lady Bucs (31-4) had 10 points or more.

Leading 30-24 at halftime, Northwest Florida opened the second half with five quick points before Shelton State went on a 10-2 run to close to within three. The Raiders answered right back with four quick points, and a layup by Tinner at the buzzer put the Raiders up 47-40 going into the final quarter.

Shelton cut it to 47-42 on a reverse layup by Mya Barnes, but Northwest Florida iced the game with a 12-0 run that included 3-pointers from Walker and Jaela Davis to make it 59-42 with 3:51 to play, and Shelton never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

Despite having to sit around an extra day before playing, the Raiders came out as the hotter team to start the game, opening with a 12-4 run that saw Walker score four of her seven first-half points in the first four minutes of the contest.

Shelton, however, weathered that surge and was able to cut the deficit in half going into the second quarter, then took the lead early in the period on an Adriana Jones bucket and a 3-pointer from the left corner by Valentine, who led all scorers in the first half with 10 points.

The teams traded the lead until Northwest Florida finished the first half on a 9-2 run that covered the final 6 ½ minutes of the contest, limiting the Lady Bucs to just one bucket in that span. Tinner kickstarted the run with a three-point play followed two minutes later by a layup. McPhaul finished the run with a free throw and a 3-pointer from the right wing with 2:03 to play, and the Raiders defense did the rest to hold the six-point lead at the intermission.

Northwest Florida's defense put the clamps on Shelton State's offense. Aside from Valentine and Jones (seven points), no other player for the Lady Bucs had more than two points as Shelton State shot just 31.6 percent from the floor in the first half.

Conversely, Northwest Florida was a decent 42.9 percent from the field and 37.5 percent (3 of 8) from the 3-point line. The Raiders also dominated in the paint, outscoring Shelton 18-8.