The North Central Missouri College Pirates and Lady Pirates were in action on Tuesday night as they traveled to Sedalia to take on NJCAA Division I power State Fair Community College. Neither NCMC squad could steal a win as the Lady Pirates returned with a 76-46 loss and the Pirates fell 89-69.
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Lady Pirates
The North Central women got a stellar game from Ashley Zeih in the post, but the State Fair guards were too much. Zeih put up a team-high 19 points and was the only Lady Pirate to reach double figures. On the perimeter, State Fair’s guards overwhelmed the Lady Pirates and NCMC was handed a 30-point loss.
“We knew going in we had our work cut out for us,” Lady Pirates’ Head Coach Jenni Croy said. “I was disappointed in our ability to handle their pressure. Their guard play was just to quick and athletic for us to match-up with, but I did think that Ashley gave us one of her best games of the season.”
The loss dropped the Lady Pirates to 5-2 on the season.
Pirates
The North Central men got out tot a great start against State Fair and gave the Roadrunners a run for their money in the first half. The game was tied at 27-27 late in the first half and at the break, North Central trailed just 34-29.
Back-to-back threes by State Fair to open the second half got the Pirates out of their game plan, however, and State Fair pulled away for a 20-point victory.
“For 30 minutes we played pretty good basketball,” Pirates’ Head Coach Steve Richman said. “The score doesn’t really show it, but we had a really good first half. We have to mature though and get to where we can handle situations better. Once they got the lead stretched a little bit, we started to rush things and got away from the pace we played in the first half.”
JaWan Davis put up 26 points to lead the Pirates and Brandon Jones added 20.
“Another problem we have right now is our scoring balance,” Richman said. “We have two guys scoring 20 points and no one else in double figures. We need to get better scoring balance if we want to have success this year.”
With the loss, the Pirates fell to 2-3 on the season.
Next up for the NCMC teams is a road trip to Creston, IA on Tuesday to face Southwestern Community College. Action tips off with the women’s game at 6 p.m. and the men will follow at 8 o’clock.