The North Central Missouri College women?s basketball team wrapped up its season with a 1-1 record in the Region 16 Tournament held in St. Louis over the weekend.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
The North Central Missouri College women?s basketball team wrapped up its season with a 1-1 record in the Region 16 Tournament held in St. Louis over the weekend.
The NCMC men also lost their final home game of the regular season to Forest Park on Saturday, 88-79.
NCMC Women
The Lady Pirates opened the regional tournament with a win over Florissant Valley on Friday night, 73-64. The Lady Pirates led at halftime, 36-29.
Stephanie Beason led the way for NCMC with 35 points, including 22 points in the first half.
?We struggled a little out of the gate, but we grabbed the lead at 3-0 and never lost it,? Head Coach James Arnold said. ?The women worked hard and I thought we played pretty well.?
Leigh Mead added 18 points for the Lady Pirates.
NCMC faced Penn Valley in Saturday’s title game. The Lady Scouts came into the game ranked 12th in NJCAA-Division II.
?On paper it looked like it might be a shootout. Stephanie came into the game as the number one scorer in our region and Penn Valley?s Erika Yancey was the second leading scorer in the region,? Arnold said. ?But both defenses executed very well. Erika and Stephanie both went scoreless in the first half.?
Both defenses shined in the first half. The Lady Scouts, however, took an eight-point lead into the half, 23-15.
The Lady Pirates were able to overcome that lead and tied the game at 40-40 with six minutes left to play in the contest. Penn Valley responded with a 6-0 run that later became an 18-4 run.
?We had good looks, we just couldn?t get the shots to fall,? Arnold said. ?We gave ourselves a chance to win, but could not make it happen.?
Beason and Mead led NCMC with 14 points each. The Lady Pirates finish with a 19-13 record under first-year head coach Arnold.
?I am pretty pleased with this team. They have overcome a lot of things this season. We had personnel changes, injuries and took some bad losses early,? Arnold said. ?But we kept after it and at the end of the season we were playing our best basketball and that is what we wanted.?
NCMC Men
The NCMC men finished off their regular season at the Ketcham Community Center. Forest Park opened the game with a 20-9 run.
?Our intensity level wasn?t where it needed to be,? Head Coach Steve Richman said. ?At times we played hard, but we didn?t necessarily play well.?
NCMC cut the lead to two points several times in the first half but the Pirates could never grab the advantage. Jared Kelly hit a pair of three-pointers to close the lead to 28-26. The Pirates trailed at halftime, 42-38.
?Their pressure caused us a lot of trouble,? Richman said. ?They pushed us out of our offense and we were not very patient.?
The second half got off to a slow start again for the Pirates. NCMC went nearly four minutes into the half without scoring. Forest Park led by as many as 12 points in the second half. The Pirates managed to get the lead down to seven points but could not get any closer.
Donovan Thompson led NCMC with 17 points. Brad Nicholson and Doug O?Dell each had 14 points. Ryan Peterson scored 12 points and Kelly added 10 points.
Roderick Coleman and Mark Stovall each scored 18 points for Forest Park. Phillip Stewart had 16 points, Tremann Williams scored 15 points and Katrail Word chipped in with 12 points.
The Pirates fall to 14-16. They will play Forest Park again on Thursday in the opening round of the Region 16 Tournament at Rolla.