by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Fittingly perhaps, the toughest NJCAA Division II women’s basketball race is coming right down to the wire.
A Kansas City Kansas Community College home court win over arch-rival Saturday will give the Blue Devils their first outright DII championship in history and their first Jayhawk Conference title since 1996-1997.
A Blue Devil loss throws the conference race into an unprecedented four-way tie for first and a playoff seeding’s nightmare.
Four teams, all ranked in the Top 10 nationally, will share first place – No. 4 KCKCC (25-4), No. 7 Highland (22-4), No. 9 Johnson County (26-3) and No. 10 Labette (19-10). Two of those teams will get first round byes, the other two will play host to either Fort Scott or Hesston.
Highland created the possible logjam Wednesday by winning a foul-marred 94-88 fiasco over KCKCC in Highland. The win snapped a 6-game Blue Devil winning streak and avenged an earlier 78-72 KCKCC win.
No such records are available but this is one for the books. A total of 106 free throws were attempted and ironically each team made 37 of 53 (.698). There were 65 fouls called, 32 on KCKCC, 33 on Highland. Five Blue Devils fouled out taking 49 points off the floor; Highland lost three to fouls and 19 points.
“The officials dictated the game and that was a shame because this was a game between two good teams,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said.
Most damaging were the five quick whistles against Nija Collier, the Blue Devils’ leading scorer and rebounder and five-time KJCCC Player of the Week, who played just nine minutes. Collier left with 5:36 remaining and 10 points and six rebounds. Starters Brodi Byrd and Lenaejha Evans followed shortly thereafter and Kisi Young and Lexi Watts picked up their fifth fouls in the final 20 seconds.
Lillie Moore stepped up offensively in Collier’s absence, scoring 28 points including 12-of-16 free throws and grabbing six rebounds while Young had a double-double, scoring 12 points and hauling in a game high 10 rebounds. Evans had 13 points before she left while Caitlyn Stewart and Watts had eight points each and Byrd six on a pair of treys.
Three-point shooting was pivotal. Averaging more than nine 3-pointers a game, KCKCC managed only nine attempts against Highland’s aggressive man-to-man defense. The Blue Devils made just three and two of those came in the opening minutes as the Blue Devils were just one of seven the last 36 minutes.
Meanwhile, Highland was 7-of-19 with several of the treys shutting off KCKCC rallies. At least three times the Blue Devils got within four or five points only to have the Scotties knock down a 3-pointer.
Otherwise, the game was pretty even. Both teams took 49 field goal attempts, Highland made 25, KCKCC 24. The Blue Devils won the rebounding 35-24 but had a game-changing 23 turnovers to 18 for the Scotties.
Hitting 9 of their first 11 shots, Highland surged to a 25-14 first quarter lead. KCKCC closed back to 25-20 but a 3-pointer by Janiya Davis ignited a 9-1 Highland run and a spectacular first half shooting performance by 5-4 Tiana Gipson pushed the Scotties to a 45-35 halftime lead. Gipson took six shots in the first half, made them all including three treys in scoring 19 points. Gipson finished with 25 points while sophomore Stefania Chiziane led all scorers with 32 points including 15-of-22 free throws.
KCKCC made its biggest run late in the third quarter. Three Collier free throws cut the KCKCC deficit to 53-52 with 3:16 left only to have Collier go to the bench 16 seconds later with her fourth foul and Highland reopened a 63-58 lead.
Closest KCKCC could get in the fourth quarter was 64-60 but Davis hit a 3-pointer. The Blue Devils also pulled to 79-73 with three minutes left and 89-84 in the closing minute but couldn’t withstand a plethora of Highland free throws – 15 of 20 after Byrd and Evans fouled out.
“We flat beat ourselves,” McKinstry said. “The first half alone we missed 14 layups and nine free throws. Even though we scored 53 points the second half we were awful.”
Saturday’s 2 p.m. game against JCCC will mark the final regular season home game for sophomores Niji Collier, Lillie Moore, Lizzie Stark, Caitlyn Stewart, Camryn Swanson, Lexi Watts and Kisi Young.
