The North Central Missouri College Lady Pirates have a long weekend road trip through Nebraska to complete before reaching the finish line of the regular season, after a commanding 87-40 win over the Missouri Valley JV on Tuesday night at the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton.
NCMC, in improving to 21-4, was paced by Angel Wiggins’ 17 points, with Jordyn Gray adding 16, Kennadie Crowe 15, and Maci Moore’s 12 points.
This weekend, the Lady Pirates will play at North Platte Community College in North Platte, Nebraska at 1 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, with coverage available from https://npccknights.com.
On Sunday afternoon, while traveling back to Trenton, the North Central ladies will stop in Beatrice, Nebraska to play the Southeast Community College Storm at 2 o’clock, with coverage from https://sccstorm.com/live.
The Lady Pirates began the week ranked #17 in the country in the Junior College Division Two rankings, the top ranked team in Region XVI, but behind a pair of potential district championship game opponents in #7 ranked North Arkansas and #12 ranked Arkansas State Mid-South.
With the #1 seed in Region XVI, the Lady Pirates are guaranteed a spot in the championship game at Lincoln University in Jefferson City at 5 o’clock on Friday, February 25th. Metropolitan and St. Louis will battle each other in a semifinal game on Thursday night, with the survivor playing the Lady Pirates. The Region XVI champion will host the Region II (Arkansas) champion on Saturday, March 5th, with the winner earning a spot in the national tournament in Port Huron, Michigan in mid-March.
The Pirate men battled a Division I powerhouse on the road Wednesday night, falling to #6 ranked Indian Hills Community College 106-73 at the Hellyer Center in Ottumwa, Iowa. The Warriors improved to 24-5 by dominating the first half, overwhelming the Pirates with a 61-29 advantage, with J’Vonne Hadley scoring 21 points for IHCC, followed by 15 from Ahren Freeman, and 12 each from Isaiah Marin and Adetokunbo Bakare.
The Pirates, falling to a mark of 14-11, had 16 points from Isaiah Ervin with Kolten Griffin adding 12.
The North Central men head into the weekend unsure if their regular season is over or not. The issue is a potential trip to St. Louis Community College on Monday afternoon, but only if that game has relevance to a potential #1 seed. On Saturday afternoon, St. Louis will play host to Metropolitan, with a Wolves win clinching a #1 seed for the Kansas City school, and a spot in Friday night’s 7 o’clock championship game in Jefferson City.
However, the hopes for a #1 seed for the North Central men are still very much alive, as the Pirates, sitting at 2-1 in Region play, split their regular season matchups with Metropolitan, but would lose a tiebreak scenario that saw both teams finish 3-1. If Metropolitan loses at St. Louis, the door of opportunity swings open for the Pirates, who would then travel to St. Louis knowing that a victory over the Archers would allow them to leap to the #1 seed, and the automatic spot in Friday’s championship game at Lincoln University’s Jason Gym.
Just as on the women’s side, the men’s Region XVI champion will host the Region II (Arkansas) champion in a district final, with the winner advancing to the national tournament in Danville, Illinois. That district final will be held in either Trenton, St. Louis, or Kansas City on Saturday, March 5th, at a time to be determined.
