BASKETBALL: No. 21 Lady Chaps overcome emotions to beat rival OC

By Oscar LeRoy
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - The No. 21 Midland College women's basketball team has faced many challenges this season and through it all, the Lady Chaparrals have found a way to overcome.

On Monday, rival Odessa College cut a double-digit down to six points in the second half, but the Lady Chaparrals dominated on the glass and held off the Lady Wranglers for a 72-60 victory on "Sophomore night" at Chaparral Center.

The win is the third straight for the Lady Chaps (20-5, 11-2 in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference) and the 11th win in the last 12 games. MC also stayed atop of the league standings as it only has one game left in the regular season.

MC coach Ron Jones expressed to the fans after the game that this season has been tough in the fact that the team has had only nine available players because of injuries. Because of that, Jones said he was proud of what the team has accomplished so far this season.

"Just the last couple of weeks (assistant coach Joshua Smith) has been scrimmaging with us because we have to scrimmage to get some stuff fixed," Jones said. "From the first of the year until now, we've only scrimmaged three or four days because we only had 10 (players) and then we lost a couple. It's just an odd way to prepare. I'm really proud of the way they handled that."

MC had a 54-30 rebounding edge and three players recorded double-doubles. Dana Thompson had 17 points and 14 rebounds, Marin Lenz had 12 points and 14 boards, and Bella Green added 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Teanna Huggins added 13 points, while Makayla Escue had 10 points as all nine available players for MC scored and had at least one rebound.

MC also outscored OC (6-17, 11-2) 42-24 in the paint and 21-5 on second-chance scoring opportunities. That made up for MC to shooting 38% on the night.

"I think we kind of struggled mentally a little bit and kind of hung in there and found a way to get it done," Jones said.

Added Thompson: "It was a tough game to play because we wanted to win for our sophomore night. We just wanted to go out there and give it our all."

The teams were tied at 19-all after the opening quarter. but MC began to get some separation when it went on a 21-6 run in the second to take a 40-25 halftime lead.

"We did a real good in the second quarter and that separated us, but they kind of kind of got to us in the third quarter," Jones said. "It seemed like we had bad possessions sometimes. We just didn't shoot it and I think some kids got into thinking about wanting to do well on sophomore night and we didn't play quite as sharp as we would like."

Odessa made its run in the third quarter and cut it to 55-49 thanks in part to the play of Lala Nainkan, who had 11 of her game-high 27 points in the period.

The Lady Wranglers never got any closer as MC was able to push the lead back up to double digits in the fourth quarter.

"We were getting concerned, so we decided to show them how good we could be," said Thompson about OC's big third quarter. "It was very important to (win the rebounding battle) because they could shoot and they're very athletic. So we all had to come together and rebound."

The Lady Chaps are now off until Feb. 24 when they travel to South Plains College with a chance to wrap up at least a share of the WJCAC title.

Follow Oscar on Twitter: @OLeRoy_MRT