By ALAN HOSKINS
Kansas City Kansas Community College basketball teams dug themselves too big a holes to climb out of Tuesday and dropped a Division II doubleheader to Brown Mackie despite big second half comebacks.
The Lady Lions (9-5) took the opener 60-48 and the Brown Mackie men (11-3) completed the sweep with a 77-64 triumph.
The loss was the first in Division II for the Blue Devil men (3-6) and dropped them to 1-1 in the division while the KCKCC women (4-6) fell to 0-2 in the conference heading into another Division II home doubleheader Saturday when Highland comes to the KCKCC Field House for games at 2 and 4 p.m.
Trailing by eight points early in the second half, the Lady Blue Devils closed to 34-32 with 13 minutes remaining only to score just one field goal over the next eight minutes and fall behind 47-35. Brown Mackie’s Kayla Mollere keyed the 13-3 run with four field goals in a game high 18-point performance.
Jherica Montgomery had her biggest night ever production wise with 10 points and 14 rebounds as the Blue Devils outrebounded the Lions 53-44. However, it wasn’t enough to overcome 25.7 percent shooting and 22 turnovers.
Samantha Hurst added 10 points while Alexandria Blaurock had nine points and nine rebounds and Mariah Marusak nine points.
The KCKCC men made an even bigger comeback. Trailing 20-5 after 10 minutes, they got to within two points twice in the second half and were down only 45-42 when Brown Mackie went on a 15-4 run triggered by Travon Mitchell, who had nine of the 15 points.
Turnovers, 24 total including 16 in the first half, took a heavy toll on the Blue Devils, who had a 40-33 rebounding margin led by Dominique Washington with 13 and Josh Rupprecht with nine. Washington also led the scoring with 17 points while Rupprecht and D.J. Booker were adding 11 each and Jordan Banks 10.
