Lady Roadrunners advance to Region 16 Tournament Championship

Sedalia, Mo.-The top-seeded and sixth-ranked State Fair Community College (SFCC) Lady Roadrunners women's basketball team used a balanced scoring attack to defeat fourth-seeded Crowder College 98-83 on Tuesday, March 10 in a Region 16 Tournament Semifinal inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center in Sedalia, Mo. The game featured seven lead changes and four ties.

Crowder led 25-23 at the end of the first quarter. SFCC used their defense to create some offense. The run included a pair of baskets from sophomore guard Zoe Newland of St. Louis, Mo. to give the Lady Roadrunners a 49-43 lead with less than two minutes remaining to halftime. SFCC (28-1) led 53-46 at halftime.

"Crowder was on fire the first half," said Lady Roadrunners head coach Nicole Collier. "They shot 60% from the field in the first half and 70% from beyond the three-point line in the half. We made some adjustments and shifted our defense, and we were able to stall them out a little bit. I was proud of the way we defended. I think we won the  game because we defended, we had a ton of deflections and steals."

Crowder would not go away; they trimmed the advantage to 62-58 with six minutes and 29 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

The Lady Roadrunners had an answer though as they took a 79-67 lead at the end of three quarters. The Lady Roadrunners made enough plays in the final quarter to secure the victory.

Five Lady Roadrunners scored in double figures in the game. Sophomore forward Ellie Buscher of St. Louis, Mo. led the team with 19 points. Buscher also pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds to finish yet another double-double. Buscher also led the team in blocked shots with two. Freshman guard Chloe Reed of Wentzville, Mo. contributed 18 points and led the team in steals with six. Reed also tied for team lead in assists with six. Newland had 17 points and 10 rebounds to finish her double-double Freshman forward Taylor Wilson of Copperas Cove, Texas chipped in with 13 points off the bench. Freshman guard Maliyah White of Minneapolis, Minn. chipped in with 10 points off the bench. Sophomore guard Sophia Edwin of Killeen, Texas tied for the team lead in assists with six.

"I love the way we shared the ball," said Collier. "We out rebounded them. It's hard to guard us when we have a lot of people doing good things offensively. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball."

The victory was the 96th career win for Collier at SFCC.

SFCC will take on second-seeded Three Rivers College in the Region 16 Championship on Friday night, March 13 Inside the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

"Our crowd was fantastic tonight," said Collier. "We appreciate them, they helped lead us to a win and we want to see them back on Friday night."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics