The North Central Missouri College men and women won their second games of the season on Tuesday evening as the Pirates defeated Southeastern Community College of Beatrice, NE, 85-71. The Lady Pirates beat Southeastern, 78-54
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The North Central Missouri College men and women won their second games of the season on Tuesday evening as the Pirates defeated Southeastern Community College of Beatrice, NE, 85-71. The Lady Pirates beat Southeastern, 78-54
NCMC Men
The Pirates used a couple of 10-point runs to beat Southeastern. The Pirates fell behind, 12-5, before going on a 13-0 run.
?Right now we are playing as well as we have played since I got here,? Head Coach Steve Richman said.
NCMC applied full-court pressure and forced the tempo all night. The Pirates starting backcourt outscored SECC, 32-15. North Central was then able to weather a 10-2 run by SECC with 12 minutes to play in the game.
?We live and die with the play of our guards. Reggie (Soward) and Zach (Vandevender) makes us go with their offense and defense,? Richman said. ?They are both playing very well.?
Southeastern got as close as 10 points before the Pirates began to extend the lead. The Pirates also got an excellent performance from forward Rodney Mayes, who led all scorers with 23 points. Mayes also had nine rebounds, four steals and three blocks.
?Rodney had an outstanding game. He does a great job inside,? Richman said. ?Rodney was way-undersized, but it showed the kind of heart the young man has. He stands all of 6-5 and he went in and was battling with a pair of 6-8 posts and a 6-10 kid.?
Cedric Ganaway had 19 points, three rebounds, three steals and one assist. Soward had 17 points, two rebounds, two steals and two assists.Vandevender added 15 points, 12 assists, two turnovers and two steals. After struggling at the free throw line during the past week, the Pirates connected on 16-of-22 against SECC.
?We are getting a lot of balance right now. Our defense is playing very well and on offense we are getting a lot of people involved,? Richman said. ?Hopefully we will continue to play as a team. If we do, we will only improve.?
The Pirates improve to 2-0 at home and 2-3 overall.
NCMC Women
The Lady Pirates had a little trouble getting started, but once they got rolling, NCMC ran away from Southeastern. The two teams were tied at 6-6 after seven minutes of play.
?This was the first zone we really had seen all year,? Head Coach Max Mothersbaugh said. ?It took us a little bit to settle down and figure out how to attack it. Once we figured it out, we really took off.?
The Lady Pirates allowed 11 more points in the first half. North Central, however, racked up 29 more points before intermission. NCMC?s defense continued to suffocate the Lady Storm in the second half.
?I was very pleased with our defense. They never really were able to get anything going,? Mothersbaugh said. ?Our interior defense is excellent right now. Our guards need to do a better job of covering up shooters, but overall I?m tickled with our defense.?
The Lady Pirates pulled away early in the second half. But once the game was in hand, Southeastern scored several cheap baskets to close the gap on the scoreboard.
?Once we had the game in hand I felt like we let down a little, especially on the defensive side,? Mothersbaugh said.
Ashley Berry had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists to lead NCMC. Stephanie Beason had 14 points and Casey Beavers added 11 points and five rebounds. Heather Davis had nine points, five rebounds and four assists. Lesli Wyatt chipped in with nine points.
?You love to see five or six kids be scoring threats for you,? Mothersbaugh said. ?We had great balance all the way around. Our post players played as well as they had all season.?
The Lady Pirates improve to 2-3 overall. Both teams will head out to the Hutchinson, KS Community College Classic this weekend.