“Battle of the Boards” hurts Lady Pirates in back-to-back losses in Overland Park

The North Central Missouri College Lady Pirates went into the Johnson County Classic over the weekend buoyed by a season-opening home-court win over KCK, and while NCMC played well in spurts on Friday and Saturday, the Lady Pirates headed home on Saturday night with a record of 1-2, and losses to Johnson County Community College and Fort Scott Community College from the floor of Cavalier Fieldhouse.

On Friday, North Central suffered its first loss of the 2016-2017 season, although the Lady Pirates played much more competitively against Johnson County then they had in past years, trailing by only one point (32-31) at the half, before the Lady Cavaliers built the advantage up to 10 (55-45) after three quarters and went on to the 75-55 victory.

A Cavalier team built on speed and defense was able to win, but without doing a ton of damage by creating turnovers.  The rebounding advantage (48-26) built by the bigger Cavs played a role, as Austin Richardson and Tantashea Giger both had 10 boards while combining for 26 points.  Shaleia Jamison had 15 points and Kierra Isaiah 13 points for the winners.

North Central was paced by freshman forward Sarah Lamp (Kirksville, MO) with 13 points, sophomore guard McKinley Hurley (Trenton, MO) with 12 points, and freshman guard Kendey Eaton (Mound City, MO) with 10.

On Saturday afternoon, the game on the glass and a third quarter slump hurt NCMC, in a 59-58 loss to the Greyhounds of Fort Scott Community College.  A third quarter surge of 23-16 by FSCC cut the Lady Pirates halftime advantage from 29-21 to 45-44, and the ‘Hounds outscored NCMC 15-13 in the final quarter.

In her best game of the young season, sophomore guard Asia Young (Kansas City, MO) led North Central with 15 points.  Lamp added 14 in her third straight game in double figures for the Lady Pirates.

North Central Missouri College travels to Creston, Iowa on Wednesday night for a women’s/men’s doubleheader with the Southwestern Community College Spartans.  Coverage of the game will be available on KGOZ-TV (YouTube.com/KTTNRadio), starting just prior to the 5:30 tip from the SWICC Fieldhouse.