January 20, 2012

sports@standard-democrat.com NEW MADRID -- Similar ways of pushing the basketball left for a ping pong style of game between the Charleston Lady Bluejays and the New Madrid County Central Eagles on Thursday night. NMCC won the battle of relentless action, however, defeating visiting Charleston 70-56 at New Madrid County Central High School...

New Madrid County Central junior Karen McGloson dribbles past Charleston's Dazique Gillespie on Thursday night at New Madrid County Central High School. (Photo by Chris Pobst, Staff)
New Madrid County Central junior Karen McGloson dribbles past Charleston's Dazique Gillespie on Thursday night at New Madrid County Central High School. (Photo by Chris Pobst, Staff)

sports@standard-democrat.com

NEW MADRID -- Similar ways of pushing the basketball left for a ping pong style of game between the Charleston Lady Bluejays and the New Madrid County Central Eagles on Thursday night.

NMCC won the battle of relentless action, however, defeating visiting Charleston 70-56 at New Madrid County Central High School.

"We both want to get up and down the floor as much as possible," NMCC head coach David Crockett said. "We like to use our athleticism. I thought our intensity and effort were incredible all night."

Junior Benesha Childress paced NMCC with 31 points while Karen McGloson added 24 herself.

Both teams couldn't get to their end quick enough after possessing the ball. They each wanted to go as fast and as hard as they could to try and get to the cup.

Although they both had their fair share of chances, NMCC was able to out-shoot the Lady Bluejays by a wide margin.

The Lady Eagles shot the ball 97 times hitting 30 of those shots (30 percent).

It was almost a simple case of the more shots were sent towards the rim, the best chance it has to go in.

"It's as fast as we can go," Charleston head coach Josh Thompson said. "We actually wanted to try and slow it down a little bit but we still pushed it on offense.

"They're not the greatest shooting team. They're a mirror of us in wanting to play inside and pushing it up the floor. We were willing to give them the open jump shots because we knew we'd have a hard time keeping them in front of us. But, we gave up too many second chance opportunities."

Charleston went 23 of 60 from the floor (38 percent). The Lady Bluejays struggled the most with turnovers and being limited to one shot while NMCC dominated the boards.

"There were two things that we worked on most in practice this week and those were rebounding and breaking the press," Thompson said. "Those were our two achilles heel's."

The Lady Eagles (10-5) had sometimes four or five opportunities to make a basket under their goal.

"If we keep going to the glass like that, good things will happen," Crockett said. "We're getting three, four or five chances and eventually we'll either get fouled or score.

"We try to make it where we get as many offensive rebounds as we can. We have to get rebounds and we have to get putbacks."

Jumping out to a 16-13 advantage after one quarter, NMCC never trailed en route to their victory. They continued to add to their margin in the second quarter opening the frame with a 10-2 run. The Lady Eagles led 34-26 at the half.

Both Childress and McGloson remained the Lady Eagles' most consistent scoring threats throughout the contest. Childress scored 16 of her 31 in the first half as McGloson had 12 of her 24 in the first two quarters as well.

"They both have that scoring mentality," Crockett said. "They've both started playing together better the last few games and they feed off of each other. They get teammates involved which gives them more opportunities to score."

Going into the fourth quarter down 47-40, Charleston fell deeper into their deficit after NMCC opened the final frame on a 9-0 run. The Lady Eagles held a 20-point lead with 3:44 left in regulation which ultimately sealed the game.

"They wore us down by that time," Thompson said. "It was hot potato. We'd try to get rid of the ball on the press and they got too many easy buckets like that. You can't let them make them runs."

Charleston senior Kasuela Cooper led her squad with 20 points. E'neikqua Ewing chipped in with 13.

Charleston 13 13 14 16 -- 56

NMCC 16 18 13 23 -- 70

CHARLESTON (56) -- Sierra Frazier 7, Kasuela Cooper 20, E'neikqua Ewing 13, Dazique Gillespie 3, Jamieshia Hamilton 13. FG 23 FT 8-18 F 17 (3-pointers: Hamilton 2. Fouled out: none.)

NMCC (70) -- Dallas Campbell 4, Amirah Ruff 4, Whitney Williams 2, Aqwanness Johnson 2, Benesha Childress 31, Karen McGloson 24, Rashauda Summers 3. FG 30 FT 8-24 F 19 (3-pointers: Childress 2. Fouled out: Childress.)

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