No. 5 Trinity Valley blows past MCC

By Jamie Wachter / executive sports editor

The Meridian Community College women suffered through an off-night shooting the basketball Wednesday night against No. 5 Trinity Valley.

Unfortunately, the Eagles also suffered through a subpar defensive effort as the Cardinals flew out of Graham Gymnasium with a 99-57 win.

“All night it was really a matter of shooting,” MCC coach Hilary Allen said. “I thought we were very poor shooting from the field, shooting from the free throw line. Give them credit, it’s obviously, their quickness and their size was probably about 90 percent of the reason why we didn’t shoot well.

“But if you’re in a situation where you don’t shoot well, and we didn’t, you have to play a little better defense and we didn’t play good defense.”

The Eagles, who fell to 1-1, twice grabbed early leads at 2-0 and 4-2. However, Trinity Valley (4-0) pushed its lead to 18-9 just five minutes in. Sharda’e Johnson, though, quickly helped MCC close. Following a basket from the MCC sophomore, she then hit a 3-pointer from the right corner while being fouled. The ensuing free throw completed the four-point play and pulled the Eagles within 18-15.

MCC would go cold after that. Following a pair a field goals within a minute at the 11-minute mark of the first half, the Eagles didn’t score from the field again until four minutes remained in the half, on another Johnson bucket. In the meantime, the Cardinals widened their lead to 42-23. Trinity Valley closed the half on a 30-8 run.

“For us to be competitive with a team like that, we need a few more games under our belt to do that,” Allen said.

The Eagles didn’t help themselves at the free throw line, either. MCC made just 9-of-24 from the charity stripe — 7-of-19 in the first half.

After the break, Trinity Valley stretched its lead to 76-34 on a Michelle White layup with 14:20 remaining as the Cardinals opened on a 18-6 streak. The Eagles would battle within 80-44 at the nine-minute mark following a 7-2 run in 1:18. Philadelphia’s Tiara Logan scored three of her six points in the run before MCC turned to its bench.

“I’m a little disappointed with our effort, I thought we’d play harder against a team like that,” Allen said. “If my second team is going to go out there and play not only harder but play better defense, we’re heading into a situation where we’re going to have to make some decisions on some people.”

The Eagles were led by Kemper County product Brittany Bohannon’s 10 points. Kierra Jones pulled down 11 rebounds off the bench to pace MCC, while Porsha Wilson added eight points — all in the second half —and Johnson scored nine.

Trinity Valley was led by Marcisa McMillan and Mechel’le Thomas, who each scored 16. Tawanna Lee added 15 and White had 11 and nine rebounds. Brittney Dukes led the Cardinals with 11 rebounds, while adding nine points.