North Central Women Back To Title Game

The North Central Missouri College women’s basketball team has just seven players – but they are finally starting to get healthy at the right time.
On Thursday in Jefferson City, North Central opened Region 16 Tournament play with a 74-61 victory over Penn Valley, sending the Pirates back to the region’s championship game.
The victory snapped a three-game slid on which North Central closed the season. The Pirates struggled with injuries during that stretch and, with just seven players to begin with, those took their toll.
On Thursday, however, things began to click for the Pirates, who won back-to-back region championships in 2014 and 2015. The North Central women raced out to a 43-27 halftime lead and that proved to be the difference. In the second half the Pirates were forced to hang on as Penn Valley refused to go away,. But they did just that, taking the game by 13 points.
“We jumped out to an early lead by attacking the basket and looking for each other,” North Central Head Coach Jenni Croy said. “Our ball movement in the first half was outstanding. In the second half, we weren’t quite as hot, but we maintained our lead and were able to hold them off for the W.”
Kendey Eaton led the way for the Pirates, scoring a game-high 27 points. Madison Gonseth added 13 points and 18 rebounds and Jami Nickerson added 13 points as well. Sarah Lamp showed signs of getting back to full strength, going for 10 points and 12 rebounds.
North Central improved to 21-9 overall with the victory, their third of the year over Penn Valley. The win sends the Pirates back to the Region 16 championship game where they will face St. Louis. North Central was swept during the regular season by St. Louis, falling 75-73 on the road on Feb. 4 and 82-67 – albeit without an effective Sarah Lamp – at home on Feb. 23.
“We are excited to get the chance to face St. Louis again,” Croy said. “We have all seven girls finally healthy. It’s going to take four solid quarters, though, and we are really going to have to lock down on the defensive end.”
North Central and St. Louis meet for the region championship today at Lincoln University in Jefferson City. Tipoff between the Pirates and Archers is set for 1 p.m.
St. Louis Men 64
North Central Men 50
The North Central men saw their season come to a close on Thursday, falling 64-50 to St. Louis in the opening round of the Region 16 Tournament in Jefferson City.
The Pirates struggled with the St. Louis defense, scoring just 19 points in the first half. NCMC couldn’t get much more offense going in the second half, finishing with just 50 points and losing by 14 points.
“This was a tough game to end our season on,” Pirates’ Head Coach Jeremy Esry said. “You have to give a lot of credit to St. Louis and how they defended us all night. They were able to speed us up offensively and we just couldn’t hit a shot because of it. We had some good looks but I felt we rushed them because of their defense.”
On a night where there wasn’t much offense, Jalen Gant led the Pirates, securing a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The loss ends what was a pretty successful year for the Pirates in Esry’s first season as head coach. North Central ran an 18-10 record overall.
“This wasn’t how we wanted to go out, but overall we had a good year and there is no reason our guys should hang their heads. Special thanks to our five sophomores Major Finley, Lorenzo Chisholm, Brandon Burden, Teyonte Jenkins and Demetrius Houston. They were leaders for us all season, on and off the floor.”