R-T Photo/Seth Herrold
Terrance Bush burres a three during the first half of NCMC’s 84-75 loss to Johnson County on Monday night in Trenton. Bush led the Pirates with 18 points.
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Things looked good early for the Pirates, who opened the game sharply. But ultimately a poor night shooting from both from the field and free throw line was too much to overcome.
The Pirates jumped on the visitors early, racing out to a 13-3 lead and forcing Johnson County into a timeout. Out of the break the lead hovered around 10 points with NCMC leading 46-35 at halftime.
The Pirates came out cold in the second half, scoring just two points in the first four minutes of the frame. Johnson County had its own issues on the offensive end, however, and the Pirates maintained a 10-point edge with 10 minutes to play.
The Pirates’ struggle on the offensive end only got worse, however. A near three-minute scoring drought allowed Johnson County to complete its comeback, taking a 61-59 lead with just over seven minutes to play.
The Pirates wouldn’t go quietly, however, pushing Johnson County down the stretch. The late rally wasn’t quite enough on this night, however, as North Central fell by nine points.
Leading the way for North Central in the loss was Terrance Bush, who had 18 points. Demetrius Houston added 14 and Xavier Parkman, D’Tavian Walker and Caleb Berry had 11 each. NCMC was just 14-of-23 from the free throw line.
“We have a couple of kids who just aren’t good free throw shooters,” Pirates’ head Coach Steve Richman said. “We’ve got to find some ways to keep them off the line in crunch-time situations. But, overall, I was actually pleased with some of the things that I saw.
“With a youthful team like we have, you have to expect some six- or seven-minute stretches like we gave the lead up in. I tried to get it stopped with a couple of timeouts, but you are just going to have that with a youthful team. We got to standing around and we had a couple things that went against us that hurt us, but what I saw tonight was that the pieces we need to be good are there. We just need to continue to get better with some things and we will be fine.”
With the loss the Pirates established an 0-1 record to start the season.
The Pirates will look to get into the win column on Wednesday as they play host to the Missouri Valley College junior varsity at home in the Ketcham Community Center. The game follows a women’s contest between North Central and Kansas City Kansas Community College, which tips off at 5:30 p.m.