By James Howey, sports editor, jhowey@jccc.edu
The Cavaliers found themselves in an all-out dog fight Wednesday night on the road. The college’s women’s basketball squad was aiming to get back on track after their first loss of the season. Unfortunately, Coffeyville is not the easiest place to get back on track.
Neither team led by more than six in this tight affair. The Cavs did go on a 12-2 run to close the half and were up 33-27. The Ravens answered right back to open the half. Coffeyville went on a 10-0 run to be up 37-33. The Cavs fought back to tie the game at 44 with 9:45 left. The game continued to go back and forth. With the game tied with a few seconds left, the Cavs botched their attempt to win the game and the Ravens nailed theirs.
“It’s just one of those nights, down the stretch we didn’t make a big shot and things didn’t go our way,” Cavaliers head coach Ben Conrad said.
The Ravens leading scorer Devin Cooper hit the game winning jumper to give the Ravens the win 55-53. Cooper was the game’s leading scorer with 21. Nieka Wheeler led the Cavs with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Chastity Franklin was second on the team with 12 points. The inability to make shots continues to plague the Cavs in this recent stretch.
“We just couldn’t shoot,” Conrad said. “You’re not going to win games if you can’t shoot and we had opportunities and didn’t capitalize.”
Even with the disappointing defeat, the Cavs defense remains strong. “We defended well enough to win this game and we really did everything well enough won to win,” Conrad said. “We just didn’t make shots and we turned it over a ton.”
With a second conference loss, the Cavs fall to third in the Jayhawk conference behind Coffeyville and Kansas City Kansas. The team is now 22-2 on the season and 6-2 in conference. The Ravens improve to 17-8 on the season and 7-1 in conference. The Cavs will look to rebound from their first pair of consecutive losses in five years. Their next game will be Saturday at home against Brown Mackie College. The Cavs will need to cut down on turnovers if things are going improve.
“We still got kids who are soft with the ball and simple fundamentals that have never lost us games in the past are costing us now,” Conrad said. “You have 21 turnovers and you’re not going to win a road game.”
Contact James Howey jhowey@jccc.edu