by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Fired by a big second quarter, Kansas City Kansas Community College’s young women’s basketball team rolled to a 78-58 win over Washburn University’s junior varsity in Topeka Monday.
Their 10th win in 11 starts and fourth in a row, the Lady Blue Devils now get a chance to avenge their only loss of the season when they play host to North Arkansas Friday at 5 p.m. North Ark took a 78-75 win in Harrisonville Nov. 15. The game will be followed by a KCKCC-North Ark men’s game at 7 p.m.
Leading just 13-12 after one quarter, the Blue Devils broke the game open with a 30-12 second period, a quarter in which they were 10-for-17 from the field including 6-of-10 3-pointers.
Miya Ford, Tee Martin and Camryn Swanson each had a pair of first-half treys and all finished with eight points while Kisi Young led KCKCC to a 43-24 halftime lead with 10 of her 16 points.
Lillie Moore and Ashley Daniels off the bench led the Blue Devils in the second half. Moore had 16 points, 14 in the second half on 7-of-9 shooting, and led all rebounders with 11 rebounds for a double-double while Daniels was 3-of-5 from 3-point on the way to 13 points.
Alix Wilson had six assists and Caitlyn Stewart five in directing the offense while Nija Collier added six rebounds and Daniels five as KCKCC won the board battle 43-37.
“A great win for our team,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “We played as well in the second quarter as we have all year. Our defensive effort was fantastic and we did a great job of making things difficult for Washburn’s offense. Washburn threw some different looks at us defensively and I was very proud of our execution that helped us build our lead going into halftime.”
Defensively the Blue Devils limited Washburn to just 21-of-62 shots for 33.9 percent and forced the Lady Ichabods into 18 turnovers although guilty of 18 turnovers themselves.
‘We got tired late in the game and that’s to be expected after just two practices in the last nine days but I am very proud of our girls and their efforts tonight,” McKinstry said.