The #9 seed Lincoln Land women’s basketball team had their championship hopes dashed as they lost to #1 seed, and undefeated, Johnson County (KS) 46-63 in the round of eight at the NJCAA national championships. The Loggers struggled to score the entire night. In the first quarter the Loggers only scored 13 points in the period. Whitney Rumbold made the only three point field goal of the game for the Loggers. Rumbold lead the Logger first quarter scoring with five points. Megan Harrell, who suffered a lower leg injury in the previous game, chipped in four points. Harrell was a game time decision for the Loggers and started the game on the bench, while playing limited minutes on the night. Lincoln Land trailed by six at the end of the period.
Things didn’t get better offensively for the Loggers as they only managed to score 10 points in the period. Marley Smith scored eight of the ten points in the period. Lincoln Land only shot 38% from the field in the first half and a dismal 14% from the three point line. After Johnson Count scored at the halftime buzzer, Lincoln Land trailed 33-23 at the break. “We were just out of sync tonight. Johnson wasn’t score a lot, but they were very efficient” stated coach Chad Jones. “It was just one of those nights, unfortunately at the very inopportune time.”
The Loggers seemed to find life in the third period. Durbin Thomas scored a driving layup on the first possession and was fouled in the act. Thomas would finish the period with five points. Lincoln Land cut the lead to four points with a chance to cut it to two, but Johnson managed to steal a pass and score an easy two in transition. This was as close as the Loggers would get. Lincoln Land outscored Johnson 15-14 in the period to cut the lead to 47-38.
The fourth period saw the offensive woes continue for Lincoln Land. Lincoln Land scored with just under five minutes to go in the game and wouldn’t connect on another field goal the remainder of the game. Johnson outscored the Loggers 16-8 in the period. “We held them to 63 points, so that wasn’t the issue. We just couldn’t get the ball in the bucket tonight” said Jones.
Lincoln Land was lead in scoring by Marley Smith with 18 points. She was the only Logger in double figures. Avrie Schmidt lead the Loggers with six rebounds on the night. Lincoln Land falls to 28-7 on the year, while Johnson County improves to 34-0. Lincoln Land will now play in the fifth place bracket tomorrow at 3pm.
