Lady Roadrunners open the season with three wins

Nov. 1 Haskell Indian Nations University Junior Varsity in Sedalia

The State Fair Community College Lady Roadrunners opened their 2023-2024 season with a 116-50 victory over Haskell Indian Nations University Junior Varsity inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center on Wednesday, Nov. 1 in Sedalia.

SFCC jumped out to a 9-2 lead early in the first quarter and pushed the advantage to 36-15 at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.

"I thought everyone played extremely hard," said Lady Roadrunners Head Coach Nicole Collier. "We were assertive on the defensive end of the floor. I was happy with their performance, in these types of games sometimes you have people go rogue and do their own thing but, I thought everybody stayed together and competed tonight. We wanted to emphasize our defense today. We were aggressive on the ball without reaching and fouling. We moved our feet, and we got in the passing lanes to try to create some steals off our deflections."

Every Lady Roadrunner who played in the game was playing in their first game at SFCC. Six Lady Roadrunners scored in double figures led by freshman guard Myra Claas with 23 points. Freshman guard Nakayla Green contributed 20 points. Freshman forward Briar Cox added 15 points, five steals, a team-high eight rebounds, and tied for the team lead in assists with four with freshman guard Meghan Campise. Sophomore guard Tanila Marshall added 10 points along with Campise and freshman guard Kayla Sullivan. Freshman forward Olivia Angerer led the team in blocked shots with two.

Nov. 3 Rend Lake College in Sedalia

SFCC opened their portion of the McDonald's Classic with a 77-53 victory over Rend Lake College inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center on Friday night, Nov. 3 in Sedalia. The Lady Roadrunners led the game the entire way. SFCC used a good defensive effort to hold Rend Lake to no more than 14 points in any quarter.

"I thought the flow of the game was really good when we were out and running," said Collier. "We are striving to become more consistent. We had a great second quarter. We scored 28 points, and we scored about the same amount of points in the second half. We want to be more consistent on the offensive end of the floor. Defensively, I thought our pressure was there. We have to start moving our feet and getting our hands up. We committed a lot of silly fouls. We need to clean that up. It was a solid effort."

Claas led SFCC in scoring again with 12 points. Freshman guard La'Tommas Johnson-Nash added 10 points and led the team in steals with four. Freshman guard Maliyah Miller also added 10 points. Cox pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and led the team in blocked shots with four. Green dished out a team-high four assists.

Nov. 4 John A. Logan College in Sedalia

SFCC (3-0) closed their portion of the McDonald's Classic with a 69-54 victory over John A. Logan College inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center on Saturday night, Nov. 4 in Sedalia.

SFCC trailed 19-14 at the end of the first quarter. John A. Logan led 36-32 at halftime after the Lady Roadrunners used their efforts in the free-throw line to cut into what was at one time a double-digit deficit.

SFCC took control of the game in the third quarter, outscoring John A. Logan 19-5 in the quarter to take a 10-point lead into the final quarter and secure the victory.

"I don't think anything was ever pretty," said Collier. "It was just about trying to get stops at one end and make plays at the other. I really felt like Kayla Sullivan really kind of came in and gave us a little bit of physicality underneath, and a little bit of punch that got us going, and a little bit of toughness that we were needing around the rim. It was a gritty effort from our team. Tanila Marshall brings a lot of energy and length to our team. I thought she did a good job of rebounding the ball and protecting the rim. Nakayla Green controlled the whole game for us. We couldn't take her off the floor. She was making three-point shots, getting to the rim, and finding open people. She is continuing to get better every day. I'm very happy with our group. We will continue keep working and getting better."

Green led SFCC in scoring with 23 points. Claas added 11 points. Johnson-Nash recorded a team-high 10 rebounds. Cox led the team with four steals. Freshman guard Madison Johnson had a team-high six assists.

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics