Gulf Coast womens team getting set to host Chipola Wednesday

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Wednesday will be, for Chipola and Gulf Coast, round two in terms of their regular season conference match ups, two out of three that is. Chipola won their first meeting a couple of weeks ago in Marianna, that being the first loss of the season for Gulf Coast. The Commodores then beat Tallahassee, lost to Northwest, and a couple of nights ago, bounced back from that with a 58-48 win over Pensacola. So a nice confidence boost as they get set to get back on the home floor and take another shot at the Indians, who they lead by half a game for second place behind the first place Raiders. That win Saturday on the road, a big confidence boost, and again, another victory with a rather short Gulf Coast bench!

“It was a good win considering we did it without our leading scorer Imani Smith.” Gulf Coast head coach Rory Kuhn told me via Zoom Monday morning. “She didn’t even play. You know we go on the road and we win with seven kids, you know obviously that’s a good feeling. Hopefully that does boost their confidence a little bit. And then you’ve got a big game ahead here with Chipola. Hopefully we can try and get a win and hopefully create a little space. But you know, one day, one game at a time because when you’ve got seven or eight players it’s never easy.”

Given they’ve played the entire season shorthanded, thanks to one player leaving and two season ending injuries, well coach Kuhn has basically forgotten what it’s like to play with a full bench. The players, he says are showing so much toughness and stamina, but he knows the grind can wear them down.

“It would be nice to have eight.” Kuhn said. “I thought I would have nine that would be great. But sometimes it goes down to seven. I think we’ve won three games, four games this year with just seven players. And it’s just so hard. You need somebody, every night you need somebody to step up. You know fatigue, getting tired, you know the grind of this conference, which I say is the best in the country, I mean it’s a battle every night. So yeah the wear and tear is starting to take its toll. But hopefully we can weather the storm and just try to keep it going one game at a time. "

Chipola winning that first match up on the 14th 83-76, they’re 3-3 in league play, the Commodores are 3-2. Northwest Florida is 6-0, with a firm grip on first place. The game Wednesday at the Harrison Field House set for 5:30. At halftime of that game by the way, Gulf Coast will introduce it’s mascot to the fans! More on that later tonight.

“You know it should be pandemonium there, I can’t wait! I might stay out on the cord for half time instead of going in the locker room, to see the new mascot. That will just be cool and you know, they did some thing here with the whole student body and everybody kind of did what they could to try to build this up. And you know people will be coming, the student body will be coming. So it should help get us a good crowd and give us a little more identity here as Gulf Coast Commodores, which will be great.”

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