by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information
A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to what had the makings of a lopsided Kansas City Kansas Community College women’s win Tuesday night.
The Blue Devils surged to a 19-3 lead in the first five minutes only to fritter it all away and more before Aliyah Myers and friends came to the rescue in an 87-80 win over No. 13-ranked North Central Missouri.
The win was the ninth in a row for the unbeaten and No. 4-ranked Blue Devils heading into their biggest test of the season to date – a Saturday afternoon collision with No. 3-ranked Johnson County in Overland Park. A 2 p.m. tipoff, the game will be streamed on the JCCC athletic website.
The Blue Devils stormed to a 12-0 lead and by the time North Central scored its second field goal five minutes into the first quarter, all five Blue Devil starters had scored in building a 19-3 lead.
The Pirates never got closer than 10 points in the first half but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Each time they got close to cutting the deficit to single figures, the Blue Devils responded and eventually widened their lead to 21 points early in the second half.
KCKCC still led 63-58 only to have the Pirates bolt to a 64-63 lead two minutes into the fourth quarter and it took clutch 3-point shooting by DeQuaria Guillory, Tairia Earnest and Myers to rescue the Blue Devils.
Myers sandwiched a pair of threes around a Hannah Valentine rebound layup and Guillory and Earnest chipped in with 3-pointers for a 79-70 lead. North Central made one last bid, closing to 84-80, but Myers drained a jumper with 1:05 left to put the game out of reach.
“We had a great start to the game but we knew they were going to start scoring at some point,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “Giving up a 21-point lead was not a good thing but we could have folded and felt sorry for ourselves and given up but we didn’t. We gave up the lead and then came right back and built up a 9-point cushion.”
Myers not only led the Blue Devils in scoring with 23 points but she also led in assists with eight, in rebounds with eight and steals with six as she consistently hounded the Pirates defensively.
Guillory and Earnest were also outstanding. Guillory had a career-high 21 points, six rebounds and three assists; Earnest a career-high 20 points. Despite being the shortest player on the floor, Earnest pulled down seven rebounds and had three steals.
“Myers obviously was legitimately flirting with a quadruple-double and made some big shots when we needed them,” McKinstry said. “And DQ (Guillory) and Tiaria were both fantastic. It was the first start for DeQuaria. With Faith Putz away for a death in the family, it took away a little of our depth. And sending them to the free throw line for 17-of-20 is not good.”
Defensively, the Blue Devils forced 21 Pirate turnovers they converted into 29 points but lost the rebound battle 49-38.
Both teams scored 38 field goals but the Blue Devils had a 12-7 advantage in 3-pointers as Myers (4-10), Earnest (3-5) and Guillory (3-5) combined to drain 10-of-20 treys.
“At times our offense looked really good; at times our defense looked good but we can’t give up 17-of-20 free throws,” McKinstry said. “When we didn’t foul (21 times), we made things pretty difficult.”