by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Quite obviously the Fred Pohlman court on the Penn Valley campus of Metropolitan Community College brings out the worst in Kansas City Kansas Community College women’s basketball.
“In my five years playing there, we’re 2-2 and our other win came in overtime,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said after the Blue Devils had escaped the 16th ranked Lady Wolves 62-56 in a down-to-the wire finish Wednesday. Last year, Metropolitan (5-2) dealt KCKCC’s national champions one of their two non-conference defeats.
The win boosted KCKCC’s record to 8-1 heading into a road game against William Penn’s junior varsity in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Friday night. It’s the last Blue Devil game until Dec. 5 when they play host to Washburn junior varsity in their final home game before the holiday break.
The Blue Devils had to overcome the worst 3-point shooting night in KCKCC history and an abundance of bad passes to boost their record to 8-1. Just 2-of-26 from 3-point for a record low 7.7 percent, the Blue Devils also threw the ball away 24 times and it took a heroic performance by freshman Kamryn Estell to salvage the win.
A 6-1 post out of Belton, Estell scored 10 of KCKCC’s final 12 points including the last six after Metropolitan had tied the game 54-54 with three minutes to go.
Her layup and two clutch free throws by Destiny Zamusio gave KCKCC a 58-54 lead with 2:13 left. Twice the Blue Devils survived turnovers before the Wolves’ Madison Mueller made it 58-56 with 43.5 seconds to go and it took another Estell layup with 26.2 seconds left and two throws at the finish to save it.
“To make 2-of-26 2-pointers and have 24 turnovers, 15 in the second half, speaks to the toughness and resiliency of this team,” McKinstry said. “Also, their No. 1 (Kianna Lane) came into the game averaging 20 points and she had seven points and 1-of-14 shooting. So we did a good job on her. But overall we were not very good. Poor passing execution and decision making. We’ve got to do a better job of making shots. We need to get in the gym and work on our shooting.”
The Blue Devils finished with 35.6 percent shooting but take away the 2-for-26 from 3-point, they were 19-of-33 (.633) from the field. Fortunately, Metropolitan also shot poorly – 21-of-67 for 31.3 percent including just 2-of-29 from 3-point (.105).
Estell finished with game highs of 21 points and eight rebounds. She was 7-of-8 from the foul line as the Blue Devils won it with a sizzling 18-of-21 (.857) on free throws. Freshman Alieyya Jones, who helped KCKCC build a big lead in the middle two quarters, added 13 points and 7 rebounds before injuring a leg ln the fourth quarter. Alijah Myers and Zamudio each had six points and Tairia Earnest and Jana Mayberry five apiece while Mercer Roberts had six rebounds.
KCKCC got off to a horrible start, making only one of its first 12 shots in falling behind 15-5. But a 10-1 run closed the gap to 16-15 at the quarter and a 22-9 second period pushed the lead to 37-25 at halftime. The Blue Devils built their biggest lead at 40-27 midway through the third quarter only to hand most of it back.
Capitalizing on four straight turnovers, the Wolves went on a 12-2 run to close their deficit to 42-39 and set up a highly competitive fourth quarter. Three times Metropolitan got within two points but two field goals each by Jones and Estell kept KCKCC in front before Estell gave the Blue Devils the lead for good with 3:00 left.
