The North Central Missouri College women’s basketball team does not make a habit of losing to junior varsity squads. So when the Pirates fell 81-73 to the Missouri Valley University JV back in December, Feb. 4 was immediately circled on their schedule.
North Central got its revenge on Tuesday night, defeating the visiting Viking JV squad 63-45.
“There was motivation after losing to (Missouri Valley) earlier,” NCMC coach Jenni Croy said. “We were extremely disappointed with our performance (a Region 16 loss against St. Louis) on Saturday as well. We kind of had a little team meeting, kind of regrouped before practice (on Monday) and made sure everybody put a good, solid practice on the floor and had their energy level where it needed to be. I think that helped us tonight.”
The Pirates didn’t have much going their way offensively, but crept out to a 13-8 lead after one quarter, with the margin expanding to 33-21 at halftime. While points were hard to come by, the Pirates defense made that point moot, stifling Missouri Valley all game long. The visitors never scored more than 15 points in a single frame and in both the first and fourth quarter, North Central held the Vikings to single digits.
“We were ready to play, we were focused,” Croy said. “We missed a lot of shots that we should make and we have to put those easy shots in the basket. We went on some runs tonight, but we didn’t play a complete game offensively. We did a decent job defensively, but we still have work to do offensively.”
Despite the lack of offense, North Central did get a big game from Kortlyn Rounkles, who led all scorers with 23 points. Da’Briauna Bables was the only other Pirate in double figures, scoring 10 points. McKenzie McBee had eight points and Angel Wiggins finished with seven.
With the win, North Central improved to 14-7 overall on the season. The Pirates will look to pick up their first region win on Saturday as they face off with Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
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