by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
With much on the line, Labette’s nationally ranked Lady Cardinals gave Kansas City Kansas Community College their best shot Saturday – a big second half that produced a 90-70 home court victory.
The win not only assured Labette of the No. 2 seed and a first round bye in this week’s NJCAA Region VI Division II playoffs but more importantly, gave the No. 11 ranked Cardinals (23-5) a home court advantage in an expected re-match with No. 12 Johnson County in semifinal play Saturday.
KCKCC, meanwhile, hosts Fort Scott Wednesday at 6 p.m. in a first round Region VI playoff game. Fourth in the Region at 4-6 and 20-10 overall, the Lady Blue Devils swept the Greyhounds in their two regular season meetings, winning at Fort Scott 75-47 and at home 75-59.
A win Wednesday would send KCKCC to No. 3 ranked Highland Saturday afternoon.
The Blue Devils stayed stride-by-stride with Labette Saturday, trailing just 37-35 at halftime. But they couldn’t overcome a rash of turners and Labette offensive rebounds in the second half.
Labette opened a 64-52 lead after three quarters but the Blue Devils closed to within four points midway through the fourth period before the Cardinals pulled away.
Fed by 17 steals, the Cardinals forced KCKCC into 30 turnovers and brought down 23 offensive rebounds while winning the battle of the boards 49-44.
“You can’t win a game on the road in this league turning the ball over 30 times, especially against a half-court zone defense,” said KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry. “And you definitely can’t give up 23 offensive rebounds. Unfortunately, we’ve already told this story before and we clearly aren’t learning from our mistakes. But I was proud of our fight in getting it to a 4-point game with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, we just ran out of gas and made too many mistakes down the stretch.”
Freshman Lillie Moore led KCKCC, scoring a game high 19 points with six rebounds, one assist and no turnovers.
“Lillie did a great job for us today,” McKinstry said. “I wish we would have been able to play through her even more.”
Kisi Young added 15 points and seven rebounds, Nija Collier 11 points and five rebounds, Gena Ojeda nine points and Kiya Ford eight points. Guard Caitlyn Stewart led the Blue Devils in rebounds with nine, scored six points and had three assists.
Upe Atosu, a 5-9 freshman from Lagos, Nigeria, came off the bench to lead Labette with 33 points including 6-of-11 3-pointers and 9-of-10 free throws.
Both teams shot 39 percent from the field but Labette outscored KCKCC by 18 points from 3-point, knocking down 9-of-25 to 3-of-19 for KCKCC. The Cardinals also had 14 less turnovers.
Highland closed out a 30-0 regular season Saturday with an 88-55 win over Fort Scott (12-15) while Johnson County (23-7) was posting a 78-62 win over Hesston ((11-18). Labette and JCCC tied for second in the final standings at 7-3 behind Highland (10-0) with KCKCC fourth (4-6), Fort Scott (2-8) fifth and Hesston (0-10) sixth.