by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Highland came into Saturday’s women’s game averaging 105 points in its last two wins but it was the defense of the No. 3 nationally ranked Lady Scotties’ defense that led to an 87-54 win over Kansas City Kansas Community College.
More than half of Highland’s 87 points came off KCKCC turnovers created by the Scotties’ aggressive full court pressing defense. The win was the 24th straight for the unbeaten Scotties and kept them atop the Region VI standings at 4-0.
Meanwhile KCKCC, which fell to 18-6 and 2-2 in Region VI play, is in the midst of the toughest part of the season.
On Wednesday, No. 7 ranked Labette (18-4) comes to KCKCC followed by No. 4 Johnson County (19-5) on Saturday afternoon. Tipoff Wednesday is 5:30 p.m. with 83 student athletes to be honored in Academic Achievement recognition ceremonies prior to the start of the men’s game.
Statistically, Saturday’s game was unique. For instance, KCKCC had a 37-34 edge in rebounding and shot just about as well as the Scotties (Highland .382, KCKCC .371). The Blue Devils also went to the free throw line 38 times, making 27 thanks to 28 Highland fouls. But the Scotties were more accurate, making 21-of-23 from the foul line.
The bad news was that KCKCC had more turnovers (36) than field goal attempts (35) and Highland had nearly twice as many field goal attempts, converting 26-of-68 to 13-of-35 for KCKCC. The Scotties also put up 40 3-point attempts, netting 14 for 35 percent while KCKCC could manage only eight 3-point tries, converting just one in being outscored 42-3.
“We knew this would be a tall task and Highland is as good as advertised, that’s for sure,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “Hopefully our young team understands the effort and intensity that it takes to compete with a team like Highland, which I believe is as good a team as we’ve played against in my short time here. With that said, so many of our mistakes were unforced – execution on both ends of the floor, passing and catching the ball. We’re certainly capable of exercising those fundamentals; we’ve just got to do a better job with those things so that we have a chance against opponents like this.”
KCKCC trailed 7-6 with 3.5 minutes left in the first quarter only to have Highland convert a series of turnovers on in-bounds and mid-court plays and nine straight free throws into a 27-14 opening period lead, and any hopes of a comeback vanished under a rash of turnovers.
Leading 42-25 at halftime, Highland scored 25 of those points off 20 Blue Devil turnovers. By game’s end 47 of 87 points were scored off KCKCC miscues.
Lillie Moore scored 16 points, Nija Collier 10 and Kisi Young 9 to lead KCKCC in scoring. Young and Collier each had six rebounds and Miya Ford and Lizzie Stark five apiece while Collier also blocked three shots.
Mariane De Caravalho, a 6-2 sophomore from Brazil, led Highland with 19 points and seven rebounds while reserve guards Kamryn Lemon and Berniezha Tidwell added 16 and 14 points.
In other action Saturday, Labette steam-rolled Hesston 103-63 while Johnson County was demolishing Fort Scott 89-30.