OCALA--The College of Central Florida men's basketball team came up just short in the opening round of the NJCAA Region 8 Men's Basketball Tournament on Thursday afternoon.
The Patriots (23-8) rallied from down 12 points in the second half and led late, before Northwest Florida State's Daryl Edwards took over.
Edwards scored 18 of his team's final 20 points and the defending NJCAA National Champions lived to fight another day after a 3-pointer by K.J. Maura rimmed out in an 84-82 loss for CF.
Up until the six-minute mark, Edwards had just six points and hadn't converted a 3-pointer, but his layup with 1:20 to go put the Raiders up for good at 79-78.
From there, Edwards buried a 3-pointer at the 48-second mark to push the lead to four for NWFS.
Eddy Polanco pulled CF to within 82-80 on a basket with 36.4 seconds remaining and the Raiders turned the ball over three seconds later.
The Patriots got the ball inside to Iseoluwapo Jegede, who was fouled with 15.4 seconds left.
Jegede missed the first and made the second to pull CF to within 82-81.
NWFS would push its lead to three after a pair of free throws by Jeromy Rodriguez at the 14.1 second mark.
The Raiders then fouled Brandon Tabb before he had the opportunity to attempt the potential game-tying 3-pointer.
Tabb made 1-of-2 free throws with 7.5 seconds left.
CF fouled Therence Mayimba with 6.4 seconds remaining and he promptly missed the front end of a one-and-one.
The Patriots grabbed the rebound and Maura, the nation's leader in assists and a 44-percent shooter from 3-point range, burst into the front corner and fired up a 3-pointer from the right side.
Rodriguez attempted to close out on the shooter, but Maura got an excellent look, which went down and rimmed back out as time expired.
Polanco (25 points, seven assists), Tabb (25 points), Maura (eight points, 10 assists), Jegede (10 rebounds) and Devaughn Jenkins (eight points, five rebounds) led the way for the Patriots in the loss.
Edwards (24 points, five assists), Rodriguez (16 points, 10 rebounds), Shadell Millinghaus (12 points, seven rebounds) and Jared Wilson-Flame (10 points), led the way for the Raiders.
NWFS , the nation's second best rebounding team in the nation, finished with a 52-38 edge on the boards.
The Raiders ended with an 18-9 advantage on the offensive glass and held a 13-4 lead on second-chance points.
CF made up for this, as it forced 22 turnovers and scored 27 points off turnovers.
NWFS made 10-of-29 from 3-point range, but struggled at the free throw line with a 14-of-24 mark.
The Patriots appeared to be on their way to knocking out the Raiders in the first matchup at state since the two teams met in the 2013 state title game.
CF led by six with just under six minutes left, before Edwards got hot.
His first shot from 3-point range got the Raiders going at the 5:48 mark.
The Patriots led by five with 3:46 left, but then CF coach Tim Ryan was hit with a controversial technical foul.
NWFS scored four points on the possession, keyed by another 3-pointer from Edwards.
Tabb knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:35 left to put CF up 76-72, but Edwards continued to knock down shots for the Raiders.
The effort by Edwards was his fifth game of over 20 points this season ad two points off his season-high earlier this year against Pensacola.
Coming into the game, he was a 33.9 percent shooter from 3-point range and hadn't hit more than three shots from beyond the arc in a game this season.
He was 5-for-6 from long range on Wednesday in the biggest game for the defending national champions to this point of the year.