The North Central Missouri College basketball teams claimed a pair of double-digit victories against opponents with winning records in Saturday afternoon action from the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton.
The Lady Pirates took a 49-34 lead into the half, and never allowed visiting North Platte Community College within single digits in the second half, improving to 15-4 with a 94-80 victory. Nora Ford had a spectacular game for North Central, with the Hamilton native hitting seven three-point shots as part of a sizzling 30 point performance. Kennadie Crowe added 21, Maci Moore 17, and Toya Bethel 12 for NCMC, with the Lady Pirates showing little rust for a team not having played since a win at St. Louis on Saturday, January 22nd.
North Platte will play host to the Lady Pirates on Saturday, February 19th, with the Knights loss in Trenton dropping NPCC to 14-8. Janay Brauer had 24 points for the visitors on Saturday, with Diamond Moore-Heath scoring 19, Fumnanya Ijeh 12, and Kayla Pope 11 points.
While North Platte and North Central played each other for the first time this season in the women’s game, the men’s game saw a rematch from November, with Ellsworth Community College of Iowa Falls, Iowa falling to the Pirates 93-64.
NCMC played one of its finest games of the season in rolling to the victory, avenging a loss at Ellsworth in early November.
Isaiah Ervin and Kolten Griffin each scored 18 for North Central (10-9), with Darius Walsh adding 12, and Kam Bevel 10 points.
Homecoming royalty was crowned between the contests, with Centralia native Guy Moran, a player for the Pirates men’s team, named king, while Lindsey Batson, a native of Princeton and member of the Lady Pirate softball team, named queen.
Saturday’s games were broadcast on Hot Country Z 101.7 and KGOZ from the Tune-In Radio app.
The North Central basketball teams are next in action on Thursday night, hosting Southeast (Beatrice, NE) Community College. The men’s game has been moved to 5 o’clock with the women’s game pushed back to 7. Those games, and the Region XVI contests at the Ketcham Center against Metropolitan CC on Saturday (February 5th at 2 and 4 o’clock) will air be aired on Hot Country Z 101.7 and Tune-In Radio.
