by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Safely over one hurdle in a wild Jayhawk Conference women’s race – as Kansas City Kansas Community College cleared with a big 78-72 win over No. 3 ranked Highland Saturday – there’s always a bigger game ahead.
“This was a big win for our sophomores because they had never beaten Highland,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “We were 0-3 against them last year. Highland (18-3) is one of the top five teams in the nation without a doubt. But honestly every game in this conference is the biggest game of the year and when you win there’s a bigger opportunity ahead of you. That’s the way it’s going to be in this conference.”
In this case, the next game is really, really big – No. 9 ranked KCKCC (21-3) at No. 1 ranked Johnson County (23-1) Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in Overland Park. At stake is first place in the Jayhawk, currently shared by KCKCC, JCCC and Labette (the Blue Devils’ next foe in Parsons Saturday afternoon).
Fired by an All-American type first half performance by Niji Collier, KCKCC opened a 41-32 halftime lead and expanded it to 18 points early in the fourth quarter before the Lady Scotties took advantage of faulty Blue Devil free throwing to close the gap to the final margin.
Collier, a 6-1 sophomore from Detroit who leads the Jayhawk in scoring and is second in rebounding, was energetic in the opening half, pulling down nine rebounds and scoring 15 points. Six of the rebounds came off the offensive board, just one less than the Scotties.
“Niji was phenomenal; the reason we went into the half with the lead,” McKinstry said. “Caitlin Stewart and Lexy Watts did great jobs on their assignment, Caroline Hoppock hit some big shots; she’s so versatile because she can handle the ball and guard post players. And Brodi Byrd was fantastic. She made some amazing plays defensively. She was the best player on the floor defensively.”
Collier finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds in 21 minutes of playing time. Freshmen Lenaejha Evans and Caroline Hoppock were also in double figures with 12 points each while Kisi Young just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Only 5-6, Byrd contributed seven rebounds and six points; Stewart also had six points; Lillie Moore five points and five rebounds; and Watts five points and three assists.
Forced into eight turnovers by Highland’s aggressive pressing defense, the Blue Devils stayed in contention in a first quarter that had nine lead changes with deadly outside shooting.
The Blue Devils took four 3-point shots, made them all – two by Byrd and one each by Collier and Hoppock – before Collier’s 10 points and seven rebounds propelled KCKCC to its 41-32 halftime lead.
They expanded the lead to 60-46 after three quarters by knocking down 9-of-13 shots (69.2 percent) only to misfire on seven fourth quarter free throws and 17 of 39 for the game.
“Free throws would have helped,” McKinstry said. “When you make 22 of 39 free throws and have 25 turnovers you usually don’t win games. We’ve just got to learn how to win; finish better. Too many times we broke their press and didn’t get anything out of it.”
