Three consecutive second half steals puncture the Panthers in 87-70 loss to Coffeyville

Brian McDowell
Sports Editor

For the first half of their match-up with the number two ranked NJCAA team in the country, the NCCC Panthers men's basketball team was able to keep pace with the Coffeyville Red Ravens. However, a stealing and scoring streak by the Red Ravens early in the second half put a stop to any momentum that Neosho County was able to establish. The Panthers ended up losing the contest by 17 points in front of a capacity crowd at NCCC gymnasium.

It was billed as an “Orange Out Game,” in which all fans that wore the Panthers' signature color received free admission to the contest. Early on, the fans were able to witness a close-knit battle between the two teams, in which NCCC sophomore Brison White was able to show off his considerable skills. Fifteen of White's 23 points in this game came in the first half, and the Panthers had a one-point lead at intermission.

The Panthers accomplished this without Tyler Hickert, a key part of the Panthers this season, one of their leading rebounders and among their leading scorers in their last game against Highland. Hickert was too sick to play in this game.

“Without him, we were missing our rotations,” NCCC Coach Jeremy Coombs said. “The other thing that hurt was Hickert was the one who usually plays outside, while “Slim” (Gregoryshon Magee) will play inside with (Chris) Patton. Without Hickert in there, Slim had to go outside a little bit, and we also had guards inside, which really threw us off.”

Coombs believes that, although the team was able to maintain this for the first 20 minutes, this scheme just wore on the team throughout the game.

At halftime, Coombs warned his team that Coffeyville was known as a second half team that scores most of their points and defends better in the second half.

“I told them that we've got to come out, and that the first five minutes was going to be very important,” Coombs said, “and then, the first five minutes were awful and made the difference in the game.”

The Panthers started this second half with a 6-0 run. True to its reputation, Coffeyville was able to fight back, tying the game on a two-handed slam dunk by Dawon Cummings, and then cementing the lead with three field goals off steals in a row.

This seemed to suck all the wind out of the Panthers.

“That was the backbreaker,” Coombs said. “We just couldn't recover from that. They kept speeding us up and getting us to throw it away, and we didn't have the discipline to just break the press, set up our offense and attack. “

That was Chanute's plan going into the game, but in the beginning of the second half, Coombs feels that the team didn't do that.

Coffeyville ran away with the game that it eventually won 87-70.

“They really cranked it up defensively in the second half,” Coombs said. “They made us speed up, and made us play a different game than we wanted to play, and we weren't disciplined enough to take care of the basketball, and that was a big part of the loss.”

White led the team in scoring, and Coombs praised the standout for playing well and doing things he was supposed to do, particularly in the first half.

“The things he was doing in the first half was exactly how he played up at Highland,” Coombs said, “and that's how you're supposed to play basketball. The second half, we just didn't do that.”

Raymond Jeter scored 12 points for the Panthers, Brett Jones had 10, Magee had eight and Patton ended up with seven.

The Comets next travel to Independence Wednesday night for a 8 p.m. showdown. This will be followed by a trip to Parsons to play Labette on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

According to Coombs, these two road games are going to be really tough.

“Labette's playing really well right now,” Coombs said, “Independence plays well at their place. They're going to be tough teams to beat.”

Coombs thinks these games will be especially hard for the Panthers coming off this loss.

“We've got to get back in there, and get back to what we know and what we do, get the discipline back, and hopefully we can go down there on a positive note, and have good games.”

CoffeyvilleRavens 36 51 — 87

NCCC Panthers 37 33 — 70