The North Central Missouri College basketball teams lost a pair of games on Wednesday night. A hostile environment and stiff competition from a pair of Division I schools proved too much for the Pirates as the Lady Pirates lost to nationally-ranked State Fair, 81-62, and the men lost to State Fair, 84-69.
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NCMC Women
The Lady Pirates were physically overmatched in Sedalia. The Lady Roadrunners had four players over 6-0 and they were able to use that size advantage to overpower NCMC.
The Lady Pirates held their own in the first half, trailing by just five points at the break, 38-33. Forward Jillian Palan got into foul trouble in the second half, compounding North Central’s problems under the basket.
“We knew we would have to play really well to pick up this win,” Head Coach James Arnold said. “We knew we would have to use our guard play as an advantage against their size, but their big kids were a load and we didn’t quite have the response that we needed.”
The Lady Pirates found themselves down by more than 10 points early in the second half, but put together a run to cut State Fair’s lead to four points with 13 minutes remaining. However, the Lady Roadrunners went back to work under the basket, scoring over 50 points inside the paint for the game.
“I thought we worked pretty hard, but we weren’t crisp and we were pretty sluggish from the get-go,” Arnold said. “We played Friday, Saturday, Monday and Wednesday and it looked like it.
“It was a bad combination of playing a nationally-ranked Division I team on their court while a little worn-down and not playing very well. That leads to a loss. But I believe this is a loss we can learn from. Their size gave us some major issues, but gives us some things to work on as we prepare for the post-season.”
Kristen Buhrmeister led the Lady Pirates with 15 points. Amber Jordan scored 10 points, Palan had nine points and Tiara Johnson added five assists.
“I thought Kristen did some nice things and that is encouraging,” Arnold said. “I also thought Taurren (Ireland) did a really nice job off the bench and gave us some good minutes.”
The Lady Pirates fall to 25-4 overall. North Central will wrap up the regular season on Saturday at Meramec in St. Louis.
NCMC Men
The men got off to another slow start, battled back and then lost another tough game. The Pirates dug themselves a 15-point hole to open the game and struggled the rest of the night to get back into the contest.
“We have to do something about the way we start games,” Head Coach Richman said. “The last three games teams have come out and got double-digit leads on us before we started to play.”
State Fair led the Pirates 38-24 at halftime. North Central trailed by as many as 21 points in the second half, but at the midway point of the second half, NCMC started a comeback that cut the Roadrunners’ lead to six points with two minutes to play.
The Pirates had a chance to cut the lead to four points, but an offensive goal tending call disallowed the basket.
“We made a good run at them, but in the end we just dug ourselves too big of a hole,” Richman said. “I am proud of our guys for battling, but at some point moral victories are not enough; we want wins.”
The men just finished up a stretch of five games in eight nights and, according to Richman, it showed.
“I think we are pretty tired, both physically and mentally,” Richman said. “We need some rest, but we also need to get in the gym and get some things corrected.”
The Pirates were led by Caleb Moon and Moses Harper with 16 points each. Brice Fantazia scored 15 points and Esian Henderson had 11 points.
NCMC held State Fair to only nine field goals in the second half, but still were outscored 54-45 in the second half – due in large part to free throws.
State Fair shot 45 free throws for the game and hit 31 free throws. By contrast, the Pirates shot 26 free throws and made 19 of them.
“If you look at the number of free throws each team shot, I think most people can guess how I feel,” Richman said. “The officials were not the only reason we lost, but on the other hand I cannot remember the last team one team shot 45 free throws in a game.”
The men fall to 17-8 overall and will play Meramec on Saturday in St. Louis.