Story by Daniel Stinman Area Director of Marketing and Public Information
North Platte, Neb. – North Platte Community College women’s basketball defeated Northeastern Junior College, 64-58, on Tuesday night for their second straight win. The victory over the Plainswomen marks the first time this season that the Knights have won back-to-back games.
“This was a big time win for our program,” said head coach Jeff Thurman. “We withstood their run and showed a lot of heart to earn the victory tonight.”
The Knights had their eleven-point halftime lead trimmed down to two inside two minutes to play in the third quarter, 39-37. The Knights responded as Janay Brauer drove the lane and laid it off the glass to stretch the lead back to four with 1:20 to play.
Knights and Plainswomen exchanged free throw opportunities in the closing minute, but the home team clung to a four-point lead after three quarters, 43-29.
The excitement rolled into the fourth as the Knights stretched their lead back to five on a jumper by Kanesha Hall with 8:06 to play, 48-43. The Plainswomen retook the lead on an 8-0 run as the clock moved inside eight minutes. Kayla Pope responded for the Knights by drawing two defenders as she drove the lane and passed it off to Diamond Moore-Heath for the easy layup to cut the deficit to one with 4:48 to play, 51-50.
The Plainswomen pushed their lead back to four with four minutes to play in the quarter. Brauer hyped up the home crowd as she found herself open in the corner to cut the deficit back to one with 3:37 to play, 56-55.
In the closing minutes and trailing by two, Brauer gave the Knights the lead back as she again found herself open and connected on her shot from beyond the arc, 59-58. The Knights shutdown the Plainswomen over the final 1:30 and sealed the victory at the free throw line.
In the opening quarter, the Knights stormed out to a 12-6 advantage in the opening 5:30 of action. The Plainswomen cut the deficit back to four on their next offensive possession, but the Knights pushed their lead to seven on a corner three by Jada Ballard with 3:15 to play in the first quarter, 15-8.
Jordyn Moon stretched the Knights lead to nine as the clock moved inside two minutes after she connected on two free throw opportunities, 17-8. The Plainswomen responded over the final 1:20 and cut the deficit to four at the end of the first quarter.
Knights opened the second quarter on 7-0 run, capped off by a Brauer layup with 7:30 remaining. The Plainswomen cut the lead to seven before Kayla Pope halted the run with a step back jumper with 6:17 to play in the second quarter, 26-15. Pope connected on a three on the Knights next offensive possession to push the deficit back to double digits, 29-17.
Knights traded buckets with the Plainswomen over the final five minutes of the quarter and took an eleven-point lead into the break, 32-23.
Moore-Heath added another double-double to her impressive freshman campaign collecting 16 rebounds to go along with her 11 points. Pope and Brauer rounded out the Knights double digit scorers with 19 and 11 points, respectively.
Knights (5-9) will have a week off before hitting the road to take on Lamar Community College on Tuesday, March 16. Lamar won the previous meeting on February 24, 72-66. Tip is set for 6:00 p.m. at the Lamar Community College Wellness Center in Lamar, Colo.