Two days produced two different results for the basketball teams from North Central Missouri College. Saturday saw the Lady Pirates and Pirates swept on the road against North Arkansas and Sunday saw NCMC bounce back with a road sweep of Missouri Valley’s junior varsity squads.
On Saturday in Harrisonville, AR, the Lady Pirates fell 90-70 and the men lost 94-93. Sunday in Marshall, the women won 64-47 and the Pirates won 84-80.
Lady Pirates
The North Central women suffered their ninth loss in a row on Saturday, falling to North Arkansas. The Lady Pirates fell behind 25-15 in the opening frame, but didn’t let the home team run away with it in the second quarter. By halftime the deficit was only two points greater as NCMC trailed 51-39. North Arkansas would outscore NCMC in both the third and fourth quarters, however, slowly pulling away for the 20-point victory.
Camille Buttorff led the Lady Pirates with 19 points and Madison Winters had 15. NCMC also got 11 points from Jami Nickerson and 11 rebounds from Maggie Graves.
The Lady Pirates’ losing streak was snapped the following day as NCMC ran out to a 23-7 first quarter lead against Missouri Valley. The home team didn’t make it easy, however, closing the NCMC lead to 46-39 entering the final frame. The North Central women closed the game on an 18-8 run, however, sealing the win.
Asia Young had 12 points for the Lady Pirates and Nickerson and Morgan Schupback each scored 10. Winters provided the Lady Pirates with 11 rebounds in the win.
Following the split over the weekend, the Lady Pirates moved to 3-13 on the season.
Pirates
The North Central men gave North Arkansas, ranked seventh in the nation, all it could handle before falling by a single point. The Pirates were in position to pull off the road upset as North Arkansas had the length of the floor to go, down by two with only 1.7 seconds showing on the clock. The home team showed why it is ranked inside the top 10, however, running a play that got them three points from the corner at the buzzer, which went in and left the Pirates with a loss.
Terrance Bush had seven three-pointers, scoring 30 points to lead the Pirates. Demetrius Houston added 17 and Major Finley and Brandon Stapleton each scored 10.
On Sunday, the Pirates found themselves in another close game, but this time NCMC would not be denied, scoring a four-point win. The Pirates trailed by 11 points at the break, but battled back to pick up the road win with a strong second-half showing.
Finley led the charge with 26 points and Bush added 17. D’Tavian Walker scored 13 points and Caleb Berry and Houston finished with 10 points each.
The split on the road moved the Pirates to 7-9 on the season.
Bothe NCMC squads will return to the floor on Saturday, playing host to St. Louis Community College in the Region 16 openers. Action at the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton begins with the women’s game at 2 p.m. and the men will follow at 4 o’clock.
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