The North Central Missouri College women’s basketball team hosted the first day of the Mark Whitaker Memorial Classic on Monday.
The two-day event features teams from NCMC, Brown Mackie College, Ellsworth Community College, Moberly Area Community College, North Arkansas Community College and Hutchinson Community College.
The Lady Pirates lost to Hutchinson, 67-62. Ellsworth Community College defeated Brown Mackie, 63-52, and Moberly beat Northern Arkansas, 74-59.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
NCMC
Monday’s game was made up of two completely different halves as the Lady Pirates controlled the game during the first 20 minutes by outscoring Hutchinson, 39-28.
“This was a great experience for us because we have not had a close game all season long,” Head Coach James Arnold said. “It was a little disappointing because we had the opportunity to close it out and couldn’t, but it is a good experience for us against a good Division 1 school.”
Amber Vandevender led the charge for the Lady Pirates with 11 first half points. Tiarra Johnson chipped in with nine first half points.
Hutchinson limited Vandevender and Johnson to just seven combined points in the second half and got an outstanding performance from T. Morrow.
“Hutchinson comes in allowing 39 points per game and we scored 39 points in the first half. In the second half they came out and were much better defensively,” Arnold said. “We led by 16 points early in the second half and then stopped taking the good shots that got us the lead. We clammed up a little bit and started passing on shots. That, along with their improvement on defense, was the difference in the game.”
Morrow scored 12 second half points and led all scorers with 21 points. Hutchinson also took advantage of free throw shooting in the second half, converting 7-of-7 attempts.
Hutchinson outscored the Lady Pirates 39-23 in the second half to win.
Vandevender led NCMC with 16 points for the game and Johnson finished with 11. Joining Morrow in double digits for Hutchinson were A. Scheoer with 15 points and A. Fessender with 13 points.
“This was a dramatic improvement over the game we played them at their place,” Arnold said. “We can take this game and build on it and use this experience down the road.”
The Lady Pirates are 12-2 and will return to action this afternoon against Brown Mackie College.
Ellsworth 63,
Brown Mackie 52
Ellsworth led at halftime, 30-16, then outscored Brown Mackie in the second half, 38-36.
Lang led Ellsworth with 17 points. Patterson added 15 points and Carman chipped in with 13 points.
Brown Mackie was led by Talton with 17 points. Barnes chipped in with 11 points.
Moberly 74,
Northern Arkansas 59
Moberly held a slim first half lead at halftime, 33-29. The Lady Greyhounds outscored Northern Arkansas in the second half by 11 points, 41-30.
Holly led Moberly with 17 points, Bentley and Bailey each had 12 points and Crowley chipped in with 10 points.
Northern Arkansas was led by Brown with 19 points. Resecker added 11 points.
Northern Arkansas played Ellsworth today at noon and Moberly Area and Hutchinson played at 2 p.m.