The North Central Missouri College men’s and women’s basketball teams hosted Region 16 games over the weekend in the Ketcham Community Center.
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The North Central Missouri College men’s and women’s basketball teams hosted Region 16 games over the weekend in the Ketcham Community Center.
The men beat Forest Park on Friday night, 66-51, then lost to Meramec Community College on Saturday, 60-57. The ninth-ranked Lady Pirates continued to dominate regional play by beating Forest Park Community College on Saturday, 65-43.
NCMC Men
The Pirates evened their regional record on Friday night at 3-3 and improved to 3-0 in regional play in the KCC. The Pirates outscored Forest Park in the first half, 30-28.
The Pirates were led at halftime by Jared Boone, who added 14 more points in the second half and finished with a team-high 24 points.
North Central outscored Forest Park in the second half, 35-23. Thalen Shiver chipped in 12 points. The Pirates hit 25-of-50 shots from two-point range and 1-of-3 from three-point range.
“We have made a concerted effort to run our offense until we get a good a high percentage shot,” Head Coach Steve Richman said. “It shows. We hit right at 50 percent from the floor.”
Against Forest Park, the Pirates held a team under 70 points for the fourth straight game. North Central’s new focus on offense has a lot to do with that.
“Teams are not getting as many opportunities because we are controlling the tempo,” Richman said. “I also think teams are getting tired (on defense) chasing us around for 25 seconds.”
The Pirates dropped their second game of the season to Meramec on Saturday. The Pirates were tied 31-31 heading into halftime, but were outscored 29-26 in the second half.
“We got away from the things that we had been doing on offense,” Richman said. “Since the Penn Valley game we have been working the ball around, looking for the high percentage shot. Saturday we did too much of three passes and fire up the ball.”
The Pirates still hit at nearly 50 percent from two-point range, 12-of-26, but went 8-of-22 from behind the three-point line.
“Meramec went to a 2-3 zone and that was the first time since we started slowing the tempo down that we have seen that,” Richman said. “We came down and made two or three passes and shot the three-pointer. Was the shot open? Yes, but we have to learn that shot will be there whenever we want it. We have to learn to rotate the ball around and try to get a high percentage shot.”
Shiver led the way with 15 points, John Hawkins had 14 points and Boone added 12 points.
The Pirates fall to 14-10 overall and are preparing for a tough stretch of games. The Southeast Community College men and women will be in town on Tuesday for a pair of rescheduled games and then on Wednesday night NCMC will host Central College’s junior varsity team. Tuesday night’s games begin at 5:30 with the women’s contest, followed by the men at 7:30 p.m. The Wednesday night men’s-only game starts at 7:30 p.m.
NCMC Women
The North Central women’s team sent the sophomores off in style with a convincing 22-point win over Forest Park. The Lady Pirates outscored Forest Park in the first half, 39-21.
Shelley Rennison had four three-pointers in the first half and finished the opening half with 15 points. The Lady Pirates outscored Forrest Park in the second half, 26-22.
Amber Vandevender led the way with 20 points. Rennison added 18 points.
“All 11 girls dressed and played significant minutes and 10 scored,” Head Coach James Arnold said. “All six sophomores scored and contributed in the victory, which improved NCMC to 9-0 in regional play.”
The Lady Pirates will be back in action on Tuesday against Southeast Community College. The game was rescheduled from Feb. 7. It will be “Red Alert” night and all NCMC fans are encouraged to wear red. The women’s game begins at 5:30 p.m.