The North Central Missouri College Lady Pirates, making their way through a rugged road schedule, have gone 2-1 over the past five days, taking a key Region XVI road win at Metropolitan CC (Kansas City, MO) on Saturday, losing to a tough Moberly team on Monday, but rebounding a a 72-63 win at Marshalltown CC (Marshalltown, IA) on Wednesday.
The Lady Pirates are now 16-8 on the season, and 1-1 in Region XVI play, with a date with the Park University JV coming up on 5:30 on Friday night from the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton.
On Saturday, NCMC rebounded in decisive fashion from a flat 20 point loss to St. Louis a week prior, using a blistering up-tempo attack in a 94-72 win at MCC. Kortlyn Rounkles had 24 points, Kennedie Kieffer an eye-popping 20 point, 20 rebound game, Lily Osborn 18, Dymeria Guillory 12, and Da’Briauna Bables 10 points.
On Monday night, the Lady Pirates to Fitzsimmons-John Arena on the campus of Moberly Area Community College, falling to the Division 1 Lady Greyhounds, 93-58. DeAnna Wilson led MACC with 19 points, with Darryn Zeigler adding 17. NCMC had 13 points each from Rounkles and Osborn, with Bables scoring 11, and Kieffer 10 points.
On Wednesday night, the Lady Pirates rallied from a 14-8 deficit at the end of the first quarter, scoring the Marshalltown Tigers by a combined 42-24 over the middle 20 minutes of the game, taking the nine-point road win. Rounkles had 23 points and Kieffer 11 for North Central, with Guillory scoring 11 off the bench. Eva Carballo had a Marshalltown high 19 points, with Eva Zaragosa adding 13.
Off key late season importance for the NCMC women will be a pair of Region XVI tests to decide postseason seeding, and potentially, with success, give the Lady Pirates a bye into the February 29th championship game in Jefferson City. On Thursday, February 20th, North Central will host Metropolitan, before traveling to St. Louis for a rematch with the Archers two days later.