by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
The schedule maker did Kansas City Kansas Community College no favors when scheduling the Lady Blue Devils to go on the road at No. 4 ranked Highland Wednesday.
Smarting from their first Jayhawk Conference loss to 14th ranked Johnson County 63-47 Monday night, the Lady Scotties rebounded with an impressive 70-53 win over the Blue Devils, who suffered their first loss in conference and Region VI play.
“Highland does a great job of making you uncomfortable,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “I thought for the most part we did a good job of handling their full court pressure but we need to do a better job of executing our offense in the half court. It’s hard to prepare for them, especially if you haven’t played against them and truly don’t understand the pressure they apply. We’ll learn from it and look to bounce back on Saturday.”
The Blue Devils (13-6) return home to play host to Fort Scott (13-3) Saturday in a 2 and 4 p.m. doubleheader and then will be the host to Labette (19-3) next Wednesday in what has become a wild Region VI and Jayhawk Conference race. Labette leads the region at 4-0 followed by Johnson County at 3-1 and Highland and KCKCC at 2-1.
Highland broke Wednesday’s game open in the second quarter. Leading just 17-14 after one period, the Scotties used a 26-11 second quarter to open a 43-25 halftime lead and KCKCC never got close although outscoring Highland 28-27 in the second half.
Jameka Dowell, a 5-8 sophomore guard, led Highland with 22 points but the Scotties two 6-1 All-America candidates were held well below their season’s average. The leading scorer in Division II of Region VI, freshman Mariane Carvalho of Aararaquara, Brazil, scored 13 pints, while under her 19.8 season’s average, while last year’s Player of the Year, sophomore Szonja Vukov of Budakeszi, Hungary, scored just seven points, half of her season’s average of 14.0 points.
Millie Shade was the only Blue Devil in double figures with 11 points while Brooklyn Wagler and Kayla Horn were adding nine points each. Horn also led in assists with five while Ky’Ana French had a team high seven rebounds for KCKCC, which was outrebounded 42-29 by the taller Scotties.