After a pair of physical battles in the Region 16 Tournament at Trenton, the North Central Missouri College women are headed back to Bismarck, ND. The third-seeded Lady Pirates knocked off second-seeded Meramec Community College on Friday night and then beat first seeded Penn Valley on Saturday afternoon to win the Region 16 title.
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After a pair of physical battles in the Region 16 Tournament at Trenton, the North Central Missouri College women are headed back to Bismarck, ND. The third-seeded Lady Pirates knocked off second-seeded Meramec Community College on Friday night and then beat first seeded Penn Valley on Saturday afternoon to win the Region 16 title.
Championship Game
In a game marked by good shooting and hard fouls, the North Central women played one of their best games of the season. The Lady Pirates survived a 16-8 run by Penn Valley at the end of the game to win the Region 16 championship, 79-78.
?It was a true college championship game. It was very physical and very intense,? Head Coach James Arnold said. ?I know our kids wouldn?t want it any other way.”
The Lady Scouts trailed 71-62 with three minutes to play but, with 50 seconds remaining in the contest, Penn Valley had outscored North Central 9-3 and closed the gap to 74-71.
NCMC converted two free throws to push the lead to 76-71. Penn Valley returned the favor and hit a lay-up to get the score difference back to three points. The Lady Scouts came up with a steal and two more points, cutting the lead to one point, 76-75, with nine seconds to play.
The Pirates called a timeout and set up a inbound play in which Shelley Rennison would pass the ball to Leigh Mead, who would step out of bounds just before she received the ball.
?It was a free baseline situation, which means we can move or pass the ball to another play who is out of bounds on the baseline,? Arnold said. ?As coaches we thought Penn Valley would either foul as soon as the pass was inbounded or they might try to knock the ball out of Leigh?s hands when she was out of bounds, which is a technical foul. As it turned out, the Penn Valley girls were so intent on playing defense they didn?t realize Leigh was out of bounds.”
NCMC hit one of the two technical foul shots the Lady Pirates got as a result, then scored a basket pushing the lead back to four points, 79-75. Penn Valley came right down and hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to one point with 1.2 seconds remaining. The Lady Pirates were then able to inbound the ball and win the Region 16 title.
?The score was more comfortable than just one point,? Arnold said. ?Even as Penn Valley made their run, our kids stayed poised, hit big free throws and executed our game plan to perfection. Our poise late in the game won us that game.?
NCMC trailed at halftime, 41-34. Penn Valley led by as many as nine points at one point in the first half.
Five Lady Pirates finished with 10 or more points. Rennison paced NCMC with 20 points, including six three-pointers. Four of those six deep balls came in the second half. Rennison hit two key three-pointers with under six minutes to play in the game.
?Shelly and Amber (Blunt) both made a pair of three-pointers late in the second half. Those were huge shots,? Arnold said. ?Those are a pair of freshmen who step up and hit big shots at key times.?
Mead finished the game with 16 points. Blunt and Dana Lucas both scored 12 points and Darci Iddings added 11 points.
DeAudra White led Penn Valley at half with 10 points and finished with 14 points. Tiffany Majors came to life in the second half for the Scouts with 18 of her 26 points. Jackiesha Davis had 15 points and Felicia Hoskins chipped in with 10 points.
Semifinal Game
Friday night?s regional semifinal proved to be just as intense as the championship game. The Meramec Lady Magic entered the contest as the number two seed. Meramec had beaten NCMC in triple overtime earlier in the season to get the second seed. But it was NCMC’s time to return the favor, defeating Meramec in the semifinals, 75-63.
?All weekend long we had role players step up,? Arnold said. ?Our kids coming off the bench were huge. That how you win championships.?
Meramec led at halftime, 37-34. Heather McAllister led Meramec with 11 points at halftime. Lucas paced the Lady Pirates with nine points.
Mead scored a team-high 19 points in the second half and. finished the game with 24 points. Lucas added 12 points as the Lady Pirates outscored Meramec 42-26 in the second half.
The Lady Pirates improve to 18-14 and will advance to play at Bismarck, ND on Saturday at 7 p.m.
All-Region Team
The Lady Pirates had three players named to the All-Region 16 team. Mead, Lucas and Cassie Verhelle earned first-team honors and Arnold was named the Region 16 coach of the year.