In a Top-20 matchup of Division 2 women’s basketball programs on Wednesday afternoon, the Lake Land Community College Lakers upended the North Central Missouri College Lady Pirates by a score of 71-64. The game was the second over a three-day period to be played by North Central, in the Palm Beach State Classic in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Lady Pirates were very competitive against 6th ranked Lake Land, but did spend most of the afternoon trailing the Lakers. With a 21-17 advantage in the third quarter pulling NCMC to within 55-51 going into the fourth quarter, a nine point run of consecutive points by Lake Land midway through the final quarter proved to be the decisive blow for the squad from Mattoon, Illinois.
North Central’s day of chasing Lake Land began in the opening quarter, when NCMC had trouble getting its offensive rhythm, scoring only nine points in falling behind 15-9.
Lake Land (8-2) was paced by 19 points from Charleece Davis, with Sydney Richards contributing 13 points and Kendra Young 12.
NCMC (8-4) was led by a pair of former Chillicothe Lady Hornets, with starting sophomore guard Jessica Reeter tossing in 22 points, including four of seven shooting from three-point range and a perfect 4-4 from the free throw stripe. Freshman forward Kayanna Cranmer was 5-5 from the field, part of a 12 point effort off the Lady Pirate bench.
North Central will play the host school in this week’s event, Palm Beach State College, on Thursday afternoon at 4 o’clock.
