Tag: KCKCC women’s basketball

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information

Kansas City Kansas Community College’s women got their 10th win of the season Tuesday, an 80-66 victory at Southeast Nebraska in Beatrice but it was hardly a typical Blue Devil performance.

“Kind of a weird game for us tonight,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said, “29 turnovers; our leading scorer Aliyah Myers doesn’t make a single bucket; and we were getting whooped for much of the first half.”

Whatever McKinstry said at halftime worked. Trailing 42-33 at the half, the Blue Devils responded with their most decisive quarter of the season, a 27-5 rampage that opened a 60-47 lead that put the game out of reach.

The win improved the Blue Devils’ record to 10-1 but with little time to enjoy it. They are right back in action Wednesday, as hosts of Hesston in a 5:30 p.m. Jayhawk Conference doubleheader that will be streamed on the KCKCC Blue Devil website.

Despite being knocked from the unbeaten ranks by No. 3 Johnson County Saturday, the Blue Devils dropped only one spot to No. 5 in the NJCAA Division II national rankings.

Five Blue Devils scored in double figures led by Hannah Valentine and De’Jaria Guillory with 14 points each. Tiaria Earnest and Faith Putz added 13 apiece, Lacy Whitcomb 10 and Ikla Elam 8. Mercer Roberts led in rebounds with nine plus six points and four steals while Elam and Myers each had seven rebounds.

“Obviously the third quarter was huge for us,” McKinstry said. “Our defense was tremendous and despite not hitting a single 3-pointer, we still put up 27 points in the quarter. D.J. Guillory was very good for us in the first half and kept us in the game; Hannah Valentine and Mercer Roberts both had great second halves. And despite Aliyah’s shooting woes (0-13), she directed us offensively and collected seven rebounds and six assists so that was definitely good to have. And we still managed to have five players in double figures.”

The Blue Devils were 31-for-73 for 42.5 percent shooting with Guillory (5-5), Valentine (5-7), Whitcomb (4-8) and Elam (4-8) the most accurate. KCKCC had a 47-39 edge in rebounding and both teams were guilty of 29 turnovers. Southeast fell to 9-5 with the loss.

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information

Kansas City Kansas Community College’s No. 4 ranked women picked the worst possible time for their worst shooting performance of the season.

Facing No. 3 ranked Johnson County on Saturday, the Blue Devils were 17-of-58 for a season worst 29.3 percent – and only because they scored eight of their 17 field goals in the fourth quarter. For the first three quarters, the Blue Devils were just 9-of-42 for 21.4 percent in a 65-53 loss.

The loss was the first for the Blue Devils in 10 starts while the Cavaliers improved to 10-0. After the Jayhawk Conference opener, KCKCC will be right back in action at Southeast Nebraska Tuesday at 6 p.m. and then will play host to Hesston Wednesday and Highland Saturday afternoon.

Long scoring droughts sabotaged the Blue Devils, more than 15 of scoreless playing time, KCKCC took a 5-0 lead but went scoreless the next 3½ minutes as JCCC went ahead for good 11-5. Trailing 12-10 at the quarter, the Blue Devils went more than 5 ½ minutes before their first field goal and trailed 24-14.

Even then the Blue Devils trailed only 27-22 at the half only to be outscored 26-7 in the third quarter as the Blue Devils went 6:45 without a field goal in falling behind 49-28. Thanks to six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, KCKCC closed to within 10 points but by then it was too little, too late.

“We can’t decide to play with urgency once we’re down by 24 points with only 10 minutes remaining in the game. At that point it’s too late,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “I do appreciate our fight. We obviously could have quit and given up so I’m proud of them for choosing to push hard and competing until the end.

“But if we’re going to have execution and mental mistakes like we did today, then we have to play with the same kind of urgency for a full four quarters so we have a chance to offset those mistakes.”

Aliyah Myers and DeQuaria Guillory had 11 points and Tiaira Earnest 10 to lead the KCKCC scoring. Hannah Valentine had five rebounds to lead the Blue Devils, who lost the battle of the boards 40-33. Myers also had four assists and Guillory three. The Blue Devils had 12 steals in forcing 19 JCCC turnovers while committing 15 of their own.

Four Cavaliers finished in double figures led by LaJahda Boyland with 12 points. JCCC shot 41.4 percent thanks to a 53.3 percent in the 26-point third quarter. The Cavaliers were 5-of-11 from 3-point (.455); KCKCC 8-of-28 (.286).

In other Jayhawk action Saturday, Highland defeated Fort Scott 57-46 while Labette’s game at Hesston was postponed.

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.”