Despite playing well, the North Central Missouri College men?s and women?s basketball teams only managed one win over the weekend in the Hutch-inson Com-munity College Classic. The Lady Pirates lost two games while the NCMC men split a pair of contests.
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Despite playing well, the North Central Missouri College men?s and women?s basketball teams only managed one win over the weekend in the Hutch-inson Com-munity College Classic. The Lady Pirates lost two games while the NCMC men split a pair of contests.
NCMC Men
The Pirates played 32 strong minutes of basketball on Friday night during their contest with Hutchinson Community College. Unfortunately for NCMC, Hutchinson logged 40 minutes of strong basketball and beat the Pirates, 81-61.
?I really felt like we played pretty well,? Head Coach Steve Richman said. ?We had about a three-minute stretch in the first half where we didn?t play all that well and about a five-minute stretch in the second half. The rest of the game we played them even.?
The Pirates led Hutchinson by as many as four points with just under 11 minutes to play in the first half. A three-pointer ignited a 10-2 run for Hutchinson and at halftime, the Pirates found themselves down, 40-30.
The Pirates cut the lead back to five with just over five minutes to play in the second half. Hutchinson again answered with a run of its own and ended the game with a 20-point lead.
?I felt like our defense played pretty well. Both teams like to press and get up and down the floor,? Richman said. ?This was a good experience for our kids. Of course we wanted to win that game, but this weekend was our best showing by far in Hutchinson.?
Rodney Mayes led the Pirates with 13 points and nine rebounds. Cedric Ganaway was the only other Pirate in double figures with 12 points and seven rebounds.
In the second game NCMC found themselves down by one point at halftime but were able to overcome Lamar Community College?s excellent size to win its third game of season, 83-79.
?They were very large and very athletic,? Richman said. ?They had a couple of bruisers inside, but Rodney just played outstanding. He and Doug O?Dell both had strong games inside, despite being smaller.?
Mayes finished the second game with 27 points, eight rebounds and three assists. The Pirates led Lamar by eight points with two minutes to play, but a couple of missed free throws helped Lamar cut the lead to two points with 30 seconds to play.
?Ryan Peterson pulled down what might have been a game-saving rebound after a missed free throw attempt,? Richman said. ?That gave us a chance to hold and win a very tight game.?
Ganaway had 18 points and five rebounds, Matt Toomey had 13 points and six rebounds and Zach Vandevender finished up with 12 points and eight assists. The Pirates travel to Sedalia to take on State Fair this Wednesday.
Lady Pirates
NCMC fell to Hutchinson Community College in the opening game, 61-39, then lost to Barton County Community College in the second contest, 60-53. Poor shooting again hurt the Lady Pirates in the first game.
?We challenged our girls before the game to match Hutchinson?s intensity and we were able to do that for the first half,? Head Coach Max Mothersbaugh said. ?In the second half we played as well as we did early in the game, we just didn?t convert our opportunities into points.?
The Lady Pirates trailed 28-21 at halftime. NCMC managed only 18 points in the second half as Hutchinson pulled away. Shawnee Mitchell scored 15 points and pulled down six rebounds to lead the Lady Pirates.
In the second game, the Lady Pirates found themselves down by only seven points, 35-28.
?I was tickled with the effort our kids gave,? Mothersbaugh said. ?Not only did they play hard and give two Division I schools a run for their money, they pushed two high quality Division I programs. This was a wonderful experience for our girls.?
The Lady Pirates cut the lead to two points twice in the second half, but were unable to ever take the lead. Casey Beavers led the way in the second game with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Mitchell had 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Stephanie Beason added 11 points and Ashley Berry chipped in with four assists.
?We got beat by two better teams,? Mothersbaugh said. ?Hopefully the girls learned from the experience and we should improve.?
The Lady Pirates fall to 2-5 on the season. They take on State Fair on Wednesday night at Sedalia.