February 6, 2010
GC women rebound from first loss with big win
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — Gulf Coast’s remedy after losing its first game of the season was to go back to basics Saturday night. By the end of the game, No. 16 Northwest Florida State was sick of it. The top-ranked Lady Commodores ran when they could, but traded in their patented fast-break offense for half-court sets in a 76-50 win over the Lady Raiders at the Billy Harrison Field House. “To get a win after our first loss is a good thing,” Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel said. “I thought we shot nice shots. We looked more like a team.”
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February 4, 2010
Basketball: Pensacola women upset Gulf Coast
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PENSACOLA — It was a road Roonie Scovel tried to steer Gulf Coast away from. The Lady Commodores were able to remain undefeated despites sluggish outings that Scovel described as effortless at times, until Wednesday night. A slow start caught up with the Lady Commodores at Pensacola in their first loss of the season, 68-64. “I would say lack of preparation for a big game,” Scovel said of the reasons behind the defeat. “We’ve been heading down this way. We’ve just gotten real flat, real complacent at practice. Not competing.
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January 28, 2010
Basketball: Gulf Coast women romp over Chipola
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — It was an average jump shot by Gulf Coast sophomore Andrea Smith. She had hit hundreds of them before. As similar as the jumper she made with 18 minutes, 34 seconds left in the second half of top-ranked Gulf Coast’s 80-54 win over Chipola was to all the rest, it was her first two-point basket of the game Wednesday night. Until then, all Smith made were 3-pointers. Smith came within one trey of tying the school record of 11 and finished with 34 points. But as electric as Smith was, Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel felt everything else about the Lady Commodores’ 20th win was dull.
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January 27, 2010
Andrea Smith wins weekly honor
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - Panama City — Gulf Coast sophomore Andrea Smith was named the FCCAA women’s player of the week, the Florida Community College Activities Association announced. Smith averaged 24 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in two wins over nationally ranked teams. She had 14 against No. 11 Northwest Florida State on Saturday and 34 against No. 13 Tallahassee. Central Florida’s Ricardo Ratliffe earned the men’s weekly honor with a 37-point night against Florida State College and 40 points against St. Johns River. The Gulf Coast Lady Commodores and Northwest Florida State Raiders remained No. 1 in their respective polls this week. The Lady Raiders dropped to fifth from third and Chipola fell from eighth to 10th. In the men’s poll, Chipola slipped from fifth to eighth and Pasco-Hernando and Santa Fe both dropped out. Polk entered the men’s poll at No. 9 and Pensacola at No. 10.

January 24, 2010
Basketball: Smith the difference for GC women in win
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - TALLAHASSEE — Roonie Scovel has had premonitions like this before. Prior to playing Tallahassee for the third time in 2008, Scovel watched Gulf Coast drift through lackadaisical practices and predicted what turned out to be the team’s only loss of the season. She saw the same thing happening this week, as the top-ranked Lady Commodores (19-0, 5-0 Panhandle Conference) weren’t focused during preparations for the Lady Eagles.
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January 21, 2010
Basketball: GC women run away from NWF State
NEWS HERALD (By Adam Rosenburg / Josh Weinfuss ) - NICEVILLE — During practice this week, Northwest Florida State coach Bart Walker said it would take his team’s ‘A’ game to be able to compete with No. 1 Gulf Coast. In the first half Wednesday, that performance was nowhere to be found for the No. 11 Raiders, as they allowed the Lady Commodores to run away with the game early at Raider Gym. Putting forth far from the perfect effort needed to compete with the Lady Commodores, the Lady Raiders were buried under a flurry of crisp passes, open jump shots and athletic post moves as Gulf Coast stayed unbeaten with a 74-53 Panhandle Conference win.
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January 18, 2010
Basketball: PJC women see double in loss to GC
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — Andrell Smith wasn’t prominent on Pensacola’s scouting report to start Saturday night’s game. By the end of it, the fourthranked Lady Pirates learned she was just as capable as her twin sister, Andrea. Smith made a career-high six 3-pointers in No. 1 Gulf Coast’s 75-63 win over Pensacola at the Billy Harrison Field House. If the shot wasn’t outside the 3-point line, Andrell, better known for her defense, couldn’t hit it.
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January 10, 2010
Basketball: Gulf Coast women rout Chipola
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - MARIANNA – As soon as Chipola guard Cayla Walker hit a 3-pointer in the opening minutes of the second half Saturday night, Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel pointed to her bench and ordered Andrea and Andrell Smith back in the game. There was a statement to be made, muscle to be flexed, crowds to be silenced here in the first meeting between No. 1 Gulf Coast and its most heated rival, Chipola, this season. It didn’t matter that the Lady Commodores (16-0, 2-0 Panhandle) were ahead by 30 at the time, Scovel wasn’t about to let Chipola (10-7, 0-1) make it a game.
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January 7, 2010
Basketball: Second-half surge propels GC women
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — Gulf Coast found out during the first half Wednesday night just how difficult winning a 13th-consecutive Panhandle Conference women’s basketball championship is going to be. But the top-ranked Lady Commodores demonstrated in the second half why they’ve won the past 12. They overcame jitters and poor shooting with one of their patented second-half runs to outlast No. 10 Tallahassee 73-58 at the Billy Harrison Field House.
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December 29, 2009
Basketball: GC women defeat Daytona State
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - GAINESVILLE — The No. 1 nationally rated Lady Commodores overcame a lackluster first half to pull away from Daytona State 89-54 during the first day of the Gateway Grande Classic on Tuesday. Andrea Smith led Gulf Coast (12-0) with 21 points. Taylor Dalrymple and Paige McCallum each had 11 and Kyra Crosby had 10. Caitlin Rowe led with nine rebounds. “The first 20 minutes were pretty sloppy, the second 20 minutes the intensity was a lot better,” GC coach Roonie Scovel said. “We got a lot of steals, turned up the heat and played better.” Gulf Coast meets Santa Fe at 3 p.m. CST on Wednesday.
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December 19, 2009
Basketball: GC women clamp down after early struggles
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — Maybe Gulf Coast was in the holiday spirit. The Lady Commodores gave Florida State College at Jacksonville almost a 4-minute head start in the last game of Saturday’s Lady Commodore Shootout, going scoreless during the opening 3 minutes, 37 seconds. Fortunately for Gulf Coast (11-0), FSCJ (6-12) struggled almost as much from the field and managed just a 3-pointer during that stretch.
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December 18, 2009
Basketball: GC women display depth again in easy win
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — If any member of the Gulf Coast Lady Commodores is complaining about playing time, it would have to be one of the starters. Nationally top-ranked Gulf Coast has more depth than a Martin Scorsese movie, and wasn’t shy about displaying it in a 91-70 triumph over Central Florida Friday afternoon in the Gulf Coast Lady Commodore Shootout.
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December 13, 2009
Gulf Coast women take long drive, win easily
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - ATLANTA - Kyra Crosby scored 17 points to lead a trio of double-figure scorers, and the Gulf Coast Community College women’s basketball team remained undefeated with a 74-48 win on Saturday over Georgia Perimeter. Andrea Smith added 16 points and Angie Felton had 14 for the Lady Commodores. Porsha Harris led Gulf Coast with nine rebounds. The game was a single game — not part of any tournament — and required a 6-hour drive each way.
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December 5, 2009
Gulf Coast women move to 8-0
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - The No. 1 rated Gulf Coast women’s basketball team improved to 8-0 on Saturday with a 79-58 victory over Daytona State (6-4) in junior college basketball Saturday in Gainesville. Alyssa Bennett and Kyra Crosby each scored 16 points and Andrea Smith had 15 points to lead the Lady Commodores to their eighth straight win. “It was a nice team win,” Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel said. “We shot about 50 percent from the field, 70 percent from the line and 70 percent from 3-point range, so the stats looked good.”
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December 4, 2009
GC women win again!
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - GAINESVILLE - Thirteen days away from basketball certainly can have its effects. Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel wasn’t sure how her team would respond to having almost two weeks off for Thanksgiving, but she found out quickly Friday afternoon at the Juco Shootout at Santa Fe College in Gainesville. Despite committing 29 turnovers, the Lady Commodores held off a late Miami Dade run for a 94-81 win. “To score 94 and have 29 turnovers, that just shows how badly we played,” Scovel said. “But we won. An ugly win is better than a pretty loss.”
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November 22, 2009
Gulf Coast women hold back Vincennes
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY – Gulf Coast’s front line turned back Vincennes Saturday afternoon. Four of the Lady Commodores starting forwards scored in double figures and wound up being the last line of defense, as well, in Gulf Coast’s 91-74 win over Vincennes in the final game of the Gulf Coast Lady Commodore Classic at the Billy Harrison Field House. “They broke down our perimeter defense 100 percent of the time,” Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel said. “We wouldn’t play any defense. I thought we watched them play kinda slow yesterday and didn’t play extremely well. I thought in our mind we thought we’d run down the floor on offense. I can’t say any spurts where we played some great team defense.”
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November 20, 2009
Gulf Coast women double up on Georgia Perimeter
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — New faces, same result. Nationally top-ranked Gulf Coast treated Georgia Perimeter just like it had Monroe three times and Trinity Valley, winning its Billy Harrison Field House season debut 98-49 Friday night in the nightcap of the Gulf Coast Lady Commodore Classic. It was the Lady Commodores (5-0) third game of 98 points or more this season, but they needed a defensive-minded second half to get there. They scored 57 points in the final 20 minutes, sparked in part by nine steals. Gulf Coast finished with 17 steals and eight blocks.
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November 19, 2009
GC women will see different teams in classic finally
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — Variety is the spice of life, and basketball. Through four games, the Gulf Coast women’s basketball team hasn’t seen an assortment of styles, having played Monroe Community College three times. That’s about to change. The Lady Commodores (4-0) will face two drastically different teams this weekend in the Gulf Coast Lady Commodore Classic at the Billy Harrison Field House. At 7 p.m. today, Gulf Coast will play Georgia Perimeter and at 3 p.m. Saturday it will take on Vincennes.
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November 19, 2009
GC women ranked No. 1
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - The Gulf Coast Lady Commodores are back on top. Thanks in part to four wins over nationally ranked teams, Gulf Coast was ranked No. 1 in this week’s NJCAA Top 30, the first time since Feb. 13, 2008, it’s sat atop the polls. The NJCAA doesn’t rank teams after the national tournament. Gulf Coast has started the season with three wins over then-No. 13 Monroe and a victory over then-No. 5 Trinity Valley. The Lady Commodores also benefitted from losses by a handful of Top 10 teams in the first three weeks of the season.
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November 17, 2009
Gulf Coast women beats Monroe for third time
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - MARIANNA — One day after winning an overtime battle against another Top 10 junior college women’s basketball team, seventh-ranked Gulf Coast was far less impressive in a 61-54 win over Monroe Community College of Rochester, N.Y. Gulf Coast (5-0) had beaten Monroe 100-68 just eight days earlier, but that game hadn’t come 24 hours after a thrilling victory over sixth-ranked Trinity Valley of Athens, Texas, 98-86 in overtime. “It was very tough to come back after the emotional victory in overtime yesterday,” said Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel. “We didn’t have a lot left in the tank.”
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November 16, 2009
GC basketball teams remain unbeaten
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - Gulf Coast men’s and women’s basketball teams remained undefeated on Saturday with double-figure road victories. In the case of the Lady Commodores, however, their 98-86 triumph came in overtime against nationally ranked Trinity Valley of Athens, Texas. The Commodores improved to 4-0 with an 80-71 win over South Georgia Tech in Americus, Ga. The Lady Commodores are 3-0 after their victory at Chipola College in Marianna. The seventh-ranked Lady Commodores opened a 44-26 halftime lead against sixth-ranked Trinity, before the Texas team came roaring back and forced a 79-79 tie at the end of regulation.
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November 12, 2009
Seven GC basketballers sign with four-year schools
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — Willie Kirkland Jr. and Travis Nichols appreciated more than most picking up their blue pens and signing their names to the National Letters of Intent on Thursday. When they joined three teammates and Andrea and Andrell Smith from the Lady Commodores in signing to play college basketball at the NCAA level, Kirkland and Nichols agreed to play for their third team since graduating high school. The Commodores (2-0), led by their five signees, including Paul Cooper, Brad Reese and Patrick Davis, will play in the Americus (Ga.) Tournament this weekend against Albany Tech at 5 p.m. CST today and South Georgia Tech at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
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November 11, 2009
GC women remain atop state poll
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - Two wins to start the season were enough to help the Gulf Coast Lady Commodores keep their No. 1 ranking in the FCCAA state poll, released Tuesday. The top four teams didn’t change from the preseason rankings, but Nos. 5-9 were shuffled because of a number of upsets. Tallahassee’s 1-2 start caused it to drop from fifth to seventh. Indian River State fell from sixth to eighth, while Santa Fe climbed from seventh to fifth and Central Florida from ninth to sixth. Daytona State dropped out and was replaced by Brevard at No. 9. Miami Dade remained No. 10.
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November 7, 2009
GC basketball teams move to 2-0
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - MARIANNA, FL - Gulf Coast women’s basketball coach Roonie Scovel hoped for a better showing from her team on Saturday, and the Lady Commodores didn’t disappoint. Gulf Coast defeated Monroe Community College 100-68 a day after having to hold on to beat the same opponent by only 10 points in the Milton H. Johnson Classic played at Chipola College. Gulf Coast led by only nine at the half, but surged ahead in the final 20 minutes in improving to 2-0.
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November 6, 2009
Gulf Coast teams open basketball season with wins
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - MARIANNA, FL - The seventh-ranked Lady Commodores didn’t command the lead in their 64-54 win over No. 14 Monroe Community College from New York on Friday afternoon until there were 3 minutes, 46 seconds left in the game, played in the Milton H. Johnson Classic on the campus of Chipola College. “We just struggled,” Gulf Coast coach Roonie Scovel said. “We’ve kinda been practicing that way. It wasn’t a very pretty game. If I was a fan, I would’ve asked for my money back.”
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October 1, 2009
Area junior college basketball teams open practice
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — Roonie Scovel’s team was on the court for an early-morning session because Division I coaches were in town to observe, she said. The hour-and-45-minute practice focused mostly on Gulf Coast’s patented fast-break offense and transition defense. Gulf Coast doesn’t have much time to prepare for competition, as it plays the first of four scrimmages this month on Oct. 10.
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August 15, 2009
GC women's basketball recruting class comes together
NEWS HERALD (By Josh Weinfuss ) - PANAMA CITY — While her Division I counterparts are already working on their 2010 recruiting class, Gulf Coast women’s basketball coach Roonie Scovel just put the finishing touches on this year’s new crop of Lady Commodores. She finished her 2009 class at the end of July, while most Division I schools have their incoming classes signed by April. That’s just the way it works in junior college, Scovel said. But it’s too soon for the two-time national champion coach to kick back and put her feet up. “At this point, we’re planning on this being it,” she said. “If somebody doesn’t show up or goes home, we’ll replace them quickly.” School starts Aug. 20, and Scovel hopes to have the team in Panama City by Wednesday. Recruiting at the junior college level is a summer-long task and it requires a lot of waiting, Scovel said. “You definitely wait because they take their tests up until the bitter end,” Scovel said. “And the bitter end now is the end of July. There were some that we signed early.
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