The North Central Missouri College basketball teams came out of Christmas Break having circled January 12th as a critical day in the 2018-2019, with the opening of Region 16 play seen as important to establish the Ketcham Center as a tough place to win, and potentially, getting victories to open the four-game region slate 1-0.
However, Mother Nature, as we know, had other ideas, as a weekend snowstorm battered the state of Missouri, postponing the trip for St. Louis Community College to Trenton, leaving the reschedule date for the games still up in the air.
Coming out of Saturday’s postponements, the North Central basketball teams have gone a combined 0-3 this week, with a pair of those losses at the Ketcham Center, with the newly-minted Region 16 openers with visiting Metropolitan CC (Penn Valley) coming up on Wednesday, January 23rd.
On Monday night, the Pirate men lost a ten point (41-31) halftime lead, falling to the Kansas City Kansas Blue Devils, 76-75, leaving Coach Esry’s team at 8-7. Taylor Turner came off the bench for KCKCC to score 26 points, including a sizzling 8 of 11 performance from three-point land, while Arother Ratliff had 17 points. The Pirates had 13 points each from Calvin Heidenwith and Soloman Thomas in a balanced scoring night. Stephen Campbell came off the bench to provide nine points.
On Tuesday night, the Lady Pirates lost on the Ketcham Center floor to Crowder College, 79-65, with the first quarter and the fourth quarter proving damaging for NCMC’s hopes of the victory, outscored by a combined 42-29 by the visitors from Neosho.
Elle Williams paced Crowder with 15 points, with Maia Wright adding 13, Alex Vogt 12, and Bethaney Gilkey 11 points. For the Lady Pirates, Da’Briauna Bables had 16 points, Hailey Burrows 13, and Megan Ernzen 11. North Central Missouri College will look to get back in the win column on Thursday night, traveling to Leavenworth, Kansas to play the St. Mary junior varsity.
On Wednesday night, in action broadcast on Hot Country Z 101.7, the Pirate men struggled in the first half at Johnson County Community College, and despite cutting a 20 point (53-33) halftime deficit to 10 points courtesy of a second-half surge, the nationally-ranked Cavaliers improved to 16-3 with a 92-75 victory over the now 8-8 Pirates.
Point guard Nick Larkin led JCCC with 22 points, with Xavier Womack scoring 11, and JaQuaylayon Mays, General Williams, and Berlin Roberson 10 points each. For NCMC, Jordan Reece had 17 points, Cameron Lockett 17, and Quinan Rieves 11 points.
