by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s young women‘s basketball made one determined comeback against the nation’s No. 4 ranked team but couldn’t muster a second one in a 67-56 loss at Johnson County Wednesday.
The Jayhawk Conference and Region VI Division II opener for both teams, the Lady Blue Devils have their home opener against Hesston Saturday at 2 p.m. followed by a men’s game at 4 p.m.
JCCC, which plays at No. 3 Highland (21-0) Saturday, improved to 17-4 while KCKCC fell to 16-5.
KCKCC’s battle at the fourth ranked Lady Cavaliers was a battle of quarters. JCCC won the first and third; KCKCC the second and the fourth but it wasn’t enough to overcome a frustrating 15-4 start or a disastrous 22-10 third period.
The Blue Devils couldn’t have gotten off to a worst start – just two field goals in 14 attempts (14.3 percent) and seven turnovers as JCCC built a 12-point lead early in the second quarter.
But just at the lowest ebb, 6-foot freshman Nija Collier came off the bench to score 14 second quarter points. Hitting 6-of-8 shots including 3-of-4 3-pointers, Collier’s big burst gave KCKCC a short-lived 25-23 lead before the Cavaliers regained a 28-26 halftime edge.
“Nija gave us a great spark off the bench and I felt like we as a team really rallied and had an opportunity to go into halftime with the lead,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “Unfortunately, we had a couple of mistakes late and Johnson capitalized on those mistakes.
Unfortunately, the third quarter was worse than the first. JCCC outscored the Blue Devils 18-3 in the first eight minutes to open a 46-29 lead and held KCKCC without a field goal in the period (0-for-10). All 10 KCKCC points came on free throws.
Defensively, KCKCC held the Cavaliers well under their season average in scoring (80.9), field goal percentage (.436) and 3-point percentage (.357) as they shot just 37.7 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from distance. However, the Cavaliers used a height advantage for a 38-33 rebounding edge and forced 21 KCKCC turnovers while committing 15.
Collier led the Blue Devils in scoring with 17 points while Lillie Moore added 12, Caitlyn Stewart 10 and Ashley Daniels 7. Kisi Young led all rebounders with 10 while Collier added eight in a near double-double.
“We certainly showed some glimpses of what we’re capable but unfortunately we had some lapses and long droughts offensively,” McKinstry said. “We knew they would try to take away our forwards and make our guards beat them and that’s exactly what they did and it worked. We’ve got to figure out how to play a complete game, something we’ve struggled with all year. But I like where we are headed. We’ll continue to work at it and hopefully the girls will get to feel the reward for their work. But there are no moral victories in this conference.”
In other opening round action Wednesday, No. 3 ranked Highland stayed unbeaten by nipping No. 7 ranked Labette 67-63 while Fort Scott won at Hesston 85-73.