No. 4 KCKCC women tighten hold on first; write records into the books
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Anyone interested in watching how women’s basketball can be played at the highest level may want take a look at a tape of the first quarter of Kansas City Kansas Community College’ 124-37 win over Hesston Wednesday.
Scoring on their first seven positions as the new No. 4 team in Division II, the Blue Devils ran a clinic in building a 42-6 first period lead on the way to writing four records into the KCKCC book of all-time best performances.
The 42 points are the most ever scored in a single. In addition, no KCKCC team has ever won by 87 points nor made 20 3-point goals. The 124 points are the second most ever at KCKCC.
Of greater importance, the Blue Devils (24-3) moved a big step ahead in their pursuit of their first ever Jayhawk Conference Division II championship thanks to No. 5 Highland’s 90-88 loss at Labette.
At 6-1, the Blue Devils lead Labette (5-2) by one game and Highland and Johnson County (both 4-3) by two games, with three to go.
Back on the road at Fort Scott Saturday at 2 p.m., the Blue Devils close out regular season next week with re-matches at Highland Wednesday night at home against JCCC Saturday afternoon. All three games will be streamed on the home team’s websites.
In a flawless first quarter, the Blue Devils had an amazing 14 assists on 15 field goals, made 7-of-9 of their 3-point shots (.778), 15-of-22 overall (.682), dominated the rebounding 16-4 and committed just two turnovers. The first team scored so fast and so often, the KCKCC lead was 26-4 before coach Joe McKinstry could get a second unit on the floor six minutes into the game,
Seven Blue Devils scored in double figures although no one played more than 22 minutes. In fact, leading scorer and rebounder Niji Collier sat out the third quarter and played only 11 minutes and still had 14 points and six rebounds.
So balanced was the offense the five starters totaled 63 points, the six Blue Devils off the bench netted 61.
Sophomore Kisi Young led the way, hitting 8-of-9 shots on the way to a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Freshmen Caroline Hoppock, Lenaejha Evans and Brodi Byrd followed with 17, 16 and 14 points. Camryn Swanson chipped with 12 points and three rebounds while Lillie Moore just missed a double-double with 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
The Blue Devils also got big performances from guards Lexy Watts and Caitlyn Stewart. Watts had a game high six assists, eight rebounds and seven points; Stewart five assists, three rebounds. Lizzie Stark had her first two 3-pointers of the season and Carson Chandler five points including a trey.
On their way to a game-total 20 3-pointers, six different Blue Devils made 3’s in the first quarter and by game’s end eight of 11 Blue Devils had 3-pointers, which undoubtedly is an unwritten record.
Hoppock led with five, Swanson and Bryd had four each and Evans and Stark two apiece as KCKCC knocked down 20 of 40. Neither Moore nor Young took a 3-point shot and Stewart lost a trey because of a lane violation.
“We had 33 assists (on 46 goals), which is fantastic,” McKinstry said. “The girls did a great job of sharing the basketball and staying focused on what we wanted to do. Our efficiency was really good as everyone played unselfishly. And I thought we had a good defensive effort making things tough all along.”
Hesston was limited to 15-of-60 shots (.250) including just 2-of-16 3-pointers. The Lady Larks were also outrebounded 61-26 and committed 23 turnovers to 14 for KCKCC.
The 20 3-point goals erased the old KCKCC record of 16 set against Sterling in 2015; the 69 halftime points were one more than the 68 put up against Brown Mackie in 2005 and the previous largest margin of victory was 83 points against Brown Mackie in 1995. Still intact is the all-time point record of 128 scored against Brown Mackie in 2015.