Thanks to intense defensive pressure and some hot shooting by Ashley DePane in the early going, the Jamestown Community College Jayhawks jumped out to an 18-point lead over the Pitt-Titusville Lady Panthers in women's basketball action on Wednesday night.
JCC was never headed as it rolled to an 89-53 victory.
JCC, an NJCAA Division II team, moved its record to 2-1 while Pitt-Titusville, a United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division I team, remains winless at 0-3.
Article Photos
Kelsie Beaver of Jamestown Community College fires a shot over Danielle Carwright of Pitt-Titusville during women’s basketball action at JCC on Wednesday. See additional photos at cu.post-journal.com.
P-J photo by Jim Riggs
When asked if it was a good game to have after coming off a tough one-point loss on Sunday, JCC coach George Sisson laughed and said, ''Anytime you win is a good game.''
Then he added, ''We really made an effort yesterday (in practice) that we wanted to put a lot more pressure on the ball and I thought that plays into our strengths a little bit better.
"Obviously, we didn't shoot the ball well from three on Sunday and tonight I thought we had some better looks (10 for 20). We shot it more in rhythm and more in the style that we can get our threes. And I thought our pressure on the ball got us some easy buckets.''
And by taking a healthy lead early, all the Jayhawks got to play and they all scored.
''Whether everyone scored tonight is insignificant,'' Sisson said. ''For them it probably is, but everybody got to get reps in game-like situations. I'm happy for some of the younger girls that haven't played for a while. Alyse Kickbush and Ashlynn Nicherson, my two big girls off the bench, they haven't played basketball for a couple of years. So for them to get to some game reps... I don't care if it's a 10-point game, 15-point game, it's game reps and that's going to help us get better.''
After 14:30 of play, JCC led 18-3 and the last 13 points were scored by DePane in the span of 3 minutes and the Jamestown High School graduate was scoring them in all varieties. She had one 3-pointer, four 2s and a pair of free throws.
''Once I get going it gets me more pumped up to play harder,'' DePane said. ''And then playing defense, getting steals.''
And she likes the steals as much as baskets.
''I think that's a bigger part of the game than scoring,'' DePane said. ''You have to play defense to play offense.''
She ended up heading to the bench a few minutes later and didn't return to action in the first half.
''I think it was nice to have some of the other girls play because they did really good,'' DePane said. ''It was nice to see them play and it didn't bother me to sit on the bench.''
JCC increased its lead as Pitt-Titusville continued to commit turnovers (16 in the half) and that continued to fuel a fast break for JCC.
The Lady Panthers managed to pull within 13 twice. Then for the last eight minutes of the half, the Jayhawks outscored the Lady Panthers, 22-3, for a 51-19 halftime lead.
During that final stretch, Lauren Saglimben scored 10 or her 12 first-half points and Kelsie Beaver had six of her first-half leading 14.
Once again, it was Saglimben coming off the bench popping in 3-pointers.
''That the strongest point of my game,'' said the sophomore, who had six 3-pointers in Sunday's loss. ''I come in and I hit threes and get the team up. As soon as I hit a couple it just keeps going on and on. I like it.''
Sisson said, ''I think it's a mistake if she doesn't get a few handfuls of threes every game. That's her strength. We need to get her the ball there.''
Only two players had scored for Pitt-Titusville. Lanie Murray had 10 points and Erica Long nine.
Sisson tried to get his players to forget they had a 32-point lead.
''I told them at halftime, our opponent now is ourselves,'' he said. ''We need to play the game in the second half like it's 0-0. We need to go out and respect the game and go play and do what we want to do and let everything pan out.''
When the second half started, DePane was back in the game and back in the scorebook as she opened things up by hitting a 3-pointer. Later she hit another with a couple of 2s in between to finish with 23 points.
Saglimben hit two more 3s and a couple of 2s for 21 points. Her trey with about 10 minutes left put the Jayhawks in front by 42, 76-34.
Beaver had another bucket to finish with 16.
JCC dominated the boards, 44-29. Kaylee Sheldon had eight rebounds while Nicherson had seven and Kickbush and Alex Smith had six each.
Taylor Storer was the assists leader with five and Brook Draggett had four.
Long finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds for Pitt-Titusville while Murray had 13 points.
Next for JCC is a game against Rockland CC at the North Country CC Tournament on Friday.
''Now this weekend we have to go back-to-back games and this will be a good test to how well we go on Friday and Saturday,'' Sisson said.
PITT-TITUSVILLE (53)
Ware 3 3-5 11, Dixon 2 0-1 5, Long 10 4-5 24, Murray 5 1-1 13, Cartwright 0 0-0 0, Carr 0 0-0-0, Totals 28 8-15 53.
JCC (89)
Storer 2 0-0 4, Beaver 6 1-1 16, Sheldon 1 0-0 2, Biela 2 0-2 4, Saglimben 6 5-6 21, Draggett 1 0-0 2, DePane 9 2-2 23, Kickbush 1 0-0 2, Smith 2 0-0 4, Nicherson 2 0-0 4, Sands 3 1-2 7, Totals 35 9-13 89.
Halftime-JCC 51, Pitt-Titusville 19. 3-point goals-Dixon, Murray 2, Beaver 3, Saglimben 4, DePane 3. Total fouls-Pitt-Titusville 9, JCC 15.