Lady Roadrunners hang on to defeat Mineral Area

Sedalia, Mo.-The 12^th-ranked State Fair Community College (SFCC) Lady Roadrunners used a big opening quarter to defeat Mineral Area College 77-71 on Wednesday, Feb. 11 inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center. The game was part of the Region 16 schedule for both teams.

SFCC (23-1, 8-1 In Region 16) stormed out to a 29-11 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

The Lady Cardinals refused to go away. SFCC led 47-33 going into the locker room at halftime.

The Lady Cardinals had cut the SFCC advantage to two points when sophomore forward Ellie Buscher of St. Louis, Missouri knocked down a huge three-point shot from the corner to give SFCC a 57-52 lead at the end of the third quarter.

SFCC stretched the advantage to 67-56 with less than six minutes to go in the final quarter. The Lady Roadrunners made just enough plays in the final minutes to secure the important victory.

"The shots were falling in the first quarter," said head coach Nicole Collier. "Things were a little easy. When things are easy it's a lot of fun. We shot the ball extremely well in the first quarter and they did not. I thought we defended well in the first quarter. As good as the first quarter was, we have to figure out how to play two different types of basketball. People aren't to speed the game up on us, they are going walk the ball down the floor. We've got to find ways to stay engaged and control the way the ball goes, and we didn't do that tonight. We let them do whatever they wanted, and Mineral Area got hot from the three-point line. I didn't see us respond the way I hope that we would."

 Buscher contributed 19 points to lead the team in scoring and had a team-high five blocked shots. Sophomore guard Zoe Newland of St. Louis, Mo. and freshman guard Chloe Reed of Wentzville, Mo. added 18 points each. Freshman forward Taylor Wilson of Copperas Cove, Texas pulled out a team-high nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Sophia Edwin of Killeen, Texas led the team in assists with seven.

SFCC will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 14 with a home contest against Three Rivers College. Tipoff in the battle of nationally ranked teams is scheduled for 2 p.m. from the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center.

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics