The North Central Missouri College Lady Pirates play host to Kansas City Kansas Community College to open the 2017-2018 basketball season on Wednesday night, November 1st at the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton.
With the return of All-Region 16 talent Kendey Eaton and Sarah Lamp, along with the steady front-court presence of Iowa native Madison Gonseth, the backbone of a strong season was in place. In recruiting season, Head Coach Jenni Croy and Assistant Lesli Collins targeted a general area 100 miles around the Trenton campus, with the deepest base of graduating talent in years going into the collegiate ranks in 2017.
While the story of the ’17-’18 Lady Pirates will need to be played out on the floor over the next four months, the potential for a “special season” appears to be in place at North Central. A consistent early question to be answered at the JUCO level is how the freshmen adjust to a faster game with less zone defense than they generally saw in high school, according to Coach Croy:
If the freshmen adjust quickly, and the sophomores play as expected, the sky is the limit for NCMC, as the group has already meshed nicely off the court:
Among the incoming talent for the Lady Pirates is a player as close as anybody to the North Central program over the past decade, as Whitley Richman, daughter of long-time Pirate men’s basketball coach Steve Richman, moves down the street from Trenton High School to North Central Missouri College:
Three players from the HDC Conference are joining the Lady Pirates program, with Nicole Kost and Lindsay Wyatt of the Class 1 state champion Mercer Lady Cardinals becoming teammates with former conference rival Hailey Burrows, a high-scoring off-guard from Gilman City High School:
A player familiar to the Mercer fans will be transfer guard Samm Jett, a key contributor to the Community Lady Trojan team that beat the Lady Cardinals in the Class 1 state sectionals in March 2016, before heading to John Wood Community College in Quincy, Illinois for one year:
North Central lost to St. Louis Community College in the Region XVI championship game in Jefferson City nearly eight months ago. The season opener with KCK on November 1st can be heard locally on Hot Country Z 101.7, and audio streamed on KTTNSports.com, with pregame hitting the air at 5:15.
