by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s young women’s basketball team got a much-needed win on the road Monday night.
Coming off back-to-back losses, the Lady Blue Devils raced to an 80-56 win over Park University’s junior varsity in Parkville to boost their record to 13-3 as they passed the halfway mark of the 2017-18 season.
KCKCC will close out pre-holiday play Thursday with another tough road test against Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), which is 10-3 this season. The game will be played on DMACC’s campus in Boone, Iowa, at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on www.dmaccbears.com/livestream.
KCKCC never trailed at Park, bolting to a 9-2 lead on the way to an 18-13 first quarter lead and 43-23 halftime bulge. Freshman Kisi Young led the early surge, scoring 14 points and hauling down 11 rebounds in the first two quarters.
Young finished with game highs of 23 points and 15 rebounds for her eghth double-double of the season while Nija Collier corralled 13 rebounds as KCKCC controlled the rebounding 47-33.
Perimeter scoring came from guards Miya Ford and Gena Ojeda. Each had three 3-pointers with Ford finishing with 11 points and Ojeda nine in missing only one of four attempts in just 12 minutes off the bench.
The Blue Devils also got six assists each from Caitlyn Stewart and Tee Martin and had 12 3-pointers in 33 attempts (.364). Randi Johnson had a pair and Stewart, Camryn Swanson, Alex Wilson and Lizzie Stark one each. Stark finished with seven points, Johnson and Lillie Moore six and Stewart, Swanson and Collier five each.
“It feels good to get a much-needed win after a tough week last week,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “Our defense really did a nice job in the second quarter allowing just 10 points and that led to some easy baskets. In the second half, I thought our zone offense was some of the best we’ve had all year.
“If we learn how to limit turnovers, we will really be able to put some points on the scoreboard,” he said. “We are past the halfway point now as far as regular season games so youth and inexperience can no longer be used as an excuse. We have to do a better job of focusing on what we’re trying to do because our conference season isn’t far away and if we continue to make mistakes, it’s going to cost this team an opportunity to play in some very meaningful games.”
Turnovers, 26 in all, were just part of the problem when the Blue Devils ran into a Division I buzz saw in the St. Louis Classic Sunday night. Wabash Valley, the No. 12 ranked team in Division 1 with an 11-1 record, held KCKCC to its fewest points of the season and scored the most in a 101-53 thumping. It was the third game in the last five the Lady Warriors had scored more than 100 points.
“We knew coming in that this would be a tough game for us,” McKinstry said. “I just wished we had done a better job of executing our game plan and made Wabash work a little harder. We are definitely a better team than we showed but Wabash is very good and they put it to us.”
Wabash delivered a knockout blow from the start, surging to a 28-9 first quarter lead by shooting 62.5 percent while limiting KCKCC to four field goals in 22 attempts (.181).
Lillie Moore had 12 points and Nija Collier 10 for KCKCC but no other Blue Devil had more than two field goals. Moore also led in rebounds with seven with Collier and Ashley Daniels adding five each.
