The latest poll for the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division 2 women’s basketball came out on Tuesday afternoon, with, somewhat surprisingly, no mention, even in the “receiving votes” category, of the 9-2 North Central Missouri College Lady Pirates.
North Central, coming off a thrilling 30 point fourth quarter on Wednesday night, rallying for a 79-76 at #11 ranked Kansas City Kansas, was able to avenge one of the November losses on the Lady Pirates slate (the other was against Johnson County), with Head Coach Jenni Croy openly admitting that her team’s lack of respect in the national poll served as motivation for the road game at KCK.
While the two teams to beat North Central are both ranked, with Johnson County sitting at #3, a Bryant & Stratton team out of Wisconsin is 20th. That team, in the John Wood Classic in mid-November, lost on a neutral floor to NCMC, 99-62, perhaps the most glaring “overlook” by the voters in the Lady Pirates omission.
Now, with an eight-game winning streak in tow, the Lady Pirates have one more home game in the calendar year before heading to the warm weather of South Florida next week for a two-game slate (Tuesday and Wednesday) before getting a “beach day”, then going into Holiday Break.
The Lady Pirates will host the William Penn JV on Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock, before playing Indian River at 1 PM on Tuesday and Miami-Dade at 4:30 on Wednesday, both in South Florida.
Certain to be tested on South Beach, the Lady Pirates jump back into action on the second week of 2018, traveling to Beatrice, Nebraska to play Southeast Community College on Wednesday, January 10th, then getting a visit from 4th-ranked St. Louis in the Region 16 opener, Saturday, January 13th at the Ketcham Community Center.
