By Jim Riggs
The Jamestown Community College women's basketball team tried its Cardiac Kids routine again on Saturday, but came up short.
Article Photos
Kelsie Beaver of Jamestown Community College drives around Alfred State College's Briana Meehan during Saturday's NJCAA Region 3 Division II women's basketball game. See additional photos at cu.post-journal.com.
P-J photo by Jim Riggs
In their last home game against Niagara County CC, the Jayhawks trailed by 17 points in the second half before pulling out a victory. On Saturday against Alfred State College, JCC found itself trailing by 11 late in the first half and managed to take a two-point lead late in the game. However, the Jayhawks couldn't hold on and suffered a 58-57 NJCAA Region 3 Division II loss.
''I thought our girls played hard, they played with emotion,'' JCC coach George Sisson said. ''We were just one point short today.''
The Jayhawks are now 14-7 overall and 2-3 in Region 3 Division II while Alfred State is 12-6 and 4-1.
The Lady Pioneers opened up a six-point lead early in the game and that set the tempo of the first half as JCC never tied the game or took the lead.
The Jayhawks were behind by eight when Lauren Saglimben came off the bench and hit a couple of 3-pointers that pulled the hosts within three.
''She was a good lift for us,'' Sisson said. ''Lauren has had a long off period since early December to the middle of January with her foot (injury). She just now has been able to start to play without limping and everything else.''
The main problem for JCC was it had no answer for Alfred State's Haley Witchella, who owned the inside. The 6-foot sophomore finished the half with 18 points, more than half of Alfred State's total at halftime when it led, 32-23.
''We didn't do a real good job on Witchella,'' Sisson said. ''We talked about her, we know what her skill sets are. I don't think we finished the play with her. She got some rebounds and putbacks.''
The only other double-figure scorer at halftime was Saglimben with 10.
See WOMEN, Page C2
From Page C1
''I thought we were hesitant,'' Sisson said. ''The first half was a story of missed opportunities, I think. We missed some easy buckets, we missed some foul shots.''
And the stat sheet showed that as JCC hit only 9-of-37 from the field and 3-of-15 from the foul line.
In the second half, freshman point guard Taylor Storer decided to take it upon herself to lead a comeback for JCC. The 5-foot-2 point guard scored 10 points in the opening 7 minutes to pull the Jayhawks within four. And they could have had the lead because she dished out two perfect assists to post players who missed ''bunnies.''
''She's small in stature, she's huge in heart, she's huge in tenacity,'' Sisson said. ''In the first semester she was trying to figure out where her offense could come and she started finding out that 10-, 11-foot pull-up jumper is a good spot for her. They were doing things on the screen action that allowed her to turn the corner and get those looks for us and I was proud of the way she kept stepping up and knocking them down.''
And JCC continued to knock down its deficit.
Two of Storer's baskets were early in a 13-2 run that gave the Jayhawks their first lead of the game, 44-43, with 7:15 left to play.
The lead seesawed for a while with each team in front by two. With a minute left, the game was tied on a basket by the Lady Pioneers' Karley Fanning. Thirty-five seconds later she scored again for a 58-56 lead.
With 10.8 seconds left, Kristen Biela of JCC hit the second of a two-shot foul to pull the hosts within one.
With 6.3 seconds left, Lady Pioneers missed the front end of a one-and-one and they appeared to get a break when the rebound was batted to the back court where they could take possession and run out the clock. However, while taking possession of the ball, the Alfred State player crossed midcourt and JCC got the ball on a back-court violation with 2.9 seconds left.
After setting up a play during a timeout, JCC's Ashley DePane inbounded the ball from the halfcourt sideline and attempted a pass to the corner, but it was intercepted by Fanning to seal the Lady Pioneers' win.
''We just ran a play to try to get (Kelsie) Beaver the ball in the corner,'' Sisson said. ''It probably wasn't a good call from me because that's a long pass.''
The comeback had come up short, but the comeback was due to the Jayhawks play in the final 20 minutes.
''I thought out second half defensively was solid,'' Sisson said. ''We talked about it, we executed it better in the second half.''
JCC outscored Alfred State, 34-26, in the final 20 minutes.
''That's a pretty good team to hold to 26,'' Sisson said.
Storer led JCC with 19 points while Saglimben had 12. Storer and Beaver led in rebounding with eight each and Brook Draggett had seven.
Witchella led Alfred State with 26 points and 19 rebounds while Fanning had 11 points and Jennifer Fedrick 10.
JCC plays again at home on Tuesday against Monroe CC, which is listed under honorable mention in Division I.
ALFRED STATE (58)
Santiago 0 1-2 1, Meehan 2 0-0 5, Brito 1 1-2 3, Wiggins 1 0-0 2, Fedrick 5 0-2 10, Fannin 5 1-2 11, Witchella 11 1-5 26, Covington 0 0-0 3,Totals 25 7-13 58.
JCC (57)
Storer 9 0-0 19, Beaver 2 0-0 4, Biela 2 3-5 7, Saglimben 4 2-2 12, Draggett 2 1-1 5, DePane 2 5-6 10, Smith 0 0-0 0, Sands 0 0-0 0, Totals 21 11-17 57.
Halftime-Alfred State 32, JCC 23. 3-point goals-Meehan, Storer, Saglimben 2, DePane. Total fouls-Alfred State 16, JCC 14.