Panthers Pull Out Win on Sophomore Night
NCCC – Andrew Towne
 
The Neosho County Community College Panthers blew a 28 point lead but then held on for a 91-84 victory over the Independence Community College Pirates on Saturday night.

With the win the Panthers closed out the regular season with a 17-13 overall record.  Despite the win, it was not enough for the Panthers to gain home court advantage in the upcoming first round of the KJCCC Region VI tournament on Wednesday night.

The Panthers held a 43-15 lead with just under 4:30 remaining in the first half when the Pirates started to erase the large deficit.  They would cut the lead to 20 by halftime.

Two different runs by the Pirates in the second half allowed them to cut the double digit lead to one point with just 1:16 remaining in the game.

A 15-5 run over a five minute span leading up to the under 10 minute media timeout cut the Panther lead to 12 with 9:13 left in the contest.

Pirates made their comeback with a zone defense and tenacious full court press. 

“Pressure has been our achilles heel all year.  It is the problem with not having a point guard that will run the team,” explained Head Coach Jeremy Coombs following the game.

Neosho County in turn slowed the pace of the game down.

“We wanted to make sure we were taking good shots,” said Coombs.

They followed up the first run with an 11-3 run that cut into the Panther lead even further, giving the Panthers a slim 82-81 lead.
“They stayed in that zone which hurt us.  We were struggling with it, and were not attacking it,” explained Coombs.

In the final minute, the Panthers were able to stretch the lead to seven by going 5-6 from the free throw line and with a turnaround jumper by Chris Patton.

“We had been in that situation before, and maybe that helped us,” stated Coombs.

Neosho County sophomores came up big on sophomore night.  The Panthers were led in scoring by Brison White with 26 points and eight assists, while Patton had 20 points and Thomas Drew added 13.  Gregoryshon “Slim” Magee had five shot blocks in the game and had a team high 12 rebounds.

For the game, the Panthers shot 52.5 percent from the field while hitting 71.4 percent from the free throw line, en route to leading all 40 minutes of the ballgame.

The Panthers will now turn their attention to the first round of the Region VI tournament.  Neosho County will be the fifth seed and will travel to Great Bend, Kansas to take on Barton County Community College Cougars (24-6) on Wednesday night.  Barton County is
coached by former Neosho County Head Coach Craig Fletchall.  Tip-off is scheduled for 7pm.

ICC         31  53 – 84
NCCC     51  40 – 91