Lady Roadrunners close regular season with a split of Region 16 games

February 28 Three Rivers Community College at Sedalia

The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Lady Roadrunners fell to the 13^th-ranked Three Rivers Community College Lady Raiders 57-43 inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center on Wednesday, February 28 in Sedalia. The game was part of the Region 16 and Missouri Community College Athletic Conference schedules for both teams.

SFCC jumped out to an early 9-3 lead with seven minutes and 22 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. Three Rivers erased the early deficit to take a 19-15 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Raiders extended the advantage to 33-24 at halftime.

SFCC struggled offensively for most of the game, but managed to trim the deficit to seven points at 45-38, with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The Lady Roadrunners were held to only nine points in the second quarter and three points in the fourth quarter, as Three Rivers defense helped secure the victory.

The Lady Roadrunners shot 26.9% from the field and only knocked down 50% of their free-throw attempts in the loss.

"We have to hit free throws," said Lady Roadrunners Head Coach Nicole Collier. "We also need to knock down open shots. If we hit free throws and knock down a couple open shots, you can coach the end of the game completely differently. I thought we did a good job defensively. We just have to be able to find our legs and knock down open shots."

Freshman guard Violeta Rojas Narváez led the team in scoring with 12 points off the bench. Sophomore forward Quincenia Jackson pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Kimora McClure dished out a team-high four assists. SFCC honored three sophomores after their final regular season game.

"Tanila Marshall was a kid that we recruited really hard out of high school," said Collier. "We were able to coach her for one year. Tanila brings a lot of energy and rebounds the ball well. We would've loved to coach her for two years. She does a good job on the defensive side of the ball as well. Tanila is someone that we are definitely going to miss, and we are definitely going to have to replace her length and her energy. Jaida Shipp came in here as a soccer player and is leaving as a beast of a post player. Jaida is leaving here as a true competitor, and someone to be reckoned with on the floor. Quincenia Jackson is someone who has battled for three years. She has overcome so much already that everything from here on out is going to be easy for her because she has been battle-tested and is ready. Any program that gets any of these three student-athletes is going to get immediate contributors"

March 2 Crowder College at Neosho

SFCC (21-7, 6-6 in Region 16) erased a third quarter deficit to emerge with a 56-46 victory over Crowder College on Saturday, March 2 Neosho.

Crowder jumped out to an 18-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. SFCC began to chip away the deficit late in the second quarter. Crowder led 29-21 at halftime.

An offensive rebound and basket from Jackson gave SFCC a 34-33 lead with four minutes and 28 seconds left in the third quarter, before SFCC pushed the advantage to 40-35 at the end the quarter. SFCC outscored Crowder 19-6 in that quarter to erase the deficit. SFCC took control of the game in the final quarter to emerge with a road victory.

Jackson registered a double-double with a team-high of 15 points and 10 rebounds. Marshall also registered a double-double with 11 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Freshman guard Myra Claas had a team-high six assists in the game. Freshman guard Madison Johnson led the team in steals with four. Shipp registered two blocked shots to lead the team.

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics