Lady Greyhounds Come Up Just Short at Mineral Area

1/23/2012

The Moberly Area Community College Lady Greyhounds traveled to Mineral Area College on Saturday and came up just short in their attempt to pick up a Region 16 road win, falling 62-57 to the Lady Cardinals.

Despite falling behind by a 10-2 score in the first five minutes of the game MACC slowly crept their way back into the contest, cutting the deficit to three, 21-18, behind the play of sophomore Ashley Stevenson, who had 10 first half points. However, a disastrous final few minutes of the half saw Mineral Area outscore the Lady Greyhounds 11-1 to take a 32-19 lead into the break.

MACC connected on just six of 26 shots in the first half, including one of 11 shots from beyond the three point line. “We didn’t do a very good job of executing offensively in the first half,” said head coach Chad Killinger. “There were a lot of possessions where we had to rush things because the shot clock was winding down and instead of being aggressive throughout an entire possession we would have to force up some kind of shot to beat the clock. There were also times when we settled for some shots instead of getting them from within the flow of our offense.”

The second half of the contest started much the same way as the first half ended as Mineral Area scored seven of the first nine points to lead by 18, 39-21, with 16 minutes remaining in the game. The Lady Greyhounds then saw five different players score as they used a 16-3 run to trim the deficit to five, 42-37, with 12 minutes to play.

Mineral Area extended their lead back to 10, 49-39, over the next five minutes before Stevenson knocked down a three that started one final attempt at a comeback for the Lady Greyhounds. Shanevian Holden followed with an old-fashioned three point play and a three point basket and ShanToria Taylor went coast to coast after a rebound to trim the deficit to two, 52-50, at the four minute mark of the second half.

Stevenson then converted a three point play of her own to give the Lady Greyhounds a one point lead on MACC’s next possession. Mineral Area countered by making four of four free throw attempts on their next two possessions to retake the lead by three before an offensive rebound basket by Stevenson off of a missed free throw cut it back to one, 56-55, with under two minutes to play. The Lady Greyhounds got the defensive stop they needed and Shanice Jones found Stevenson under the basket in transition for a lay-up to give MACC the lead once again with 1:20 remaining in the game. However, with just under a minute remaining Mineral Area’s Hana Haden would knock down her third three point field goal of the game to give the Lady Cardinals a two point advantage. MACC got a good look on their next possession, but the shot fell just short and Mineral Area was able to secure the rebound, forcing the Lady Greyhounds to foul Haden. Haden converted both free throws and MACC came up empty on their next possession. Mineral Area would make one more free throw to seal the game and 62-57 score.

“I’m really proud of the way we played in the second half,” said Killinger. “We played with a lot of energy and emotion. We just have to find a way to be more consistent throughout the course of a game. We really struggle to put together 40 minutes of basketball and although we have improved in some areas of the game we still have things to improve upon.”

Stevenson led MACC with a career high 26 points, while also grabbing eight rebounds, and Holden continued her solid recent play with her fourth double-double of the season as she contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“Ashley has really stepped up recently and it’s good to see that her hard work is paying off,” said Killinger. “She’s a pretty tough kid and I think that showed in her play today, as well as the last few weeks.”

The loss dropped MACC to 11-8, while Mineral Area became just the fourth team to score over 60 points against the Lady Greyhounds. “We didn’t meet any of our team defensive goals for the first time all season,” said Killinger. “We were close on a few of them, but that’s not good enough to win on the road in this region.”

The Lady Greyhound shot much better from the field in the second half, knocking down 14 of 30 shot attempts and making two of their four three point attempts. MACC also shot 70 percent from the free throw line (14 of 20), while turning the ball over just 13 times.