Women clinch share of basketball title

By Michael Leek
Sports Editor

The LCC women’s basketball team won its last game of the regular season in a back-and-forth battle against, Kellogg Community College, 62-59 on Saturday, Feb. 24.

This win caps off an impressive season for the Stars, bringing their overall record to 23-5 and their MCCAA West Conference record to 10-2.

With the win, LCC clinched a share of the conference title. Leading into regionals, the Stars will “most likely have a home game,” to start regionals LCC Head Coach Megan Hudson said.

Hudson attributed this season’s success to multiple things.

“(It is) the culture we built this season, (and) we’ve worked tirelessly to instill championship character in the program,” Hudson said. “And more than anything, we’ve had fun with each other.”

The regional schedule is still being worked out, but Hudson said she expects the Stars’ next game to be at home on Tuesday, March 5.

In the win over Kellogg CC, the Bruins had an 11-6 lead by the end of the first quarter. In the second the quarter the Stars outscored the Bruins 26-12, taking back at halftime.

The Stars were up by five points starting the fourth quarter. Hudson said the Stars fell into a scoring drought the whole quarter.

“We held the lead until late in the fourth when Kellogg tied the game,” Hudson said. “Our scoring went cold, only netting nine points, but we held on long enough to close out the game in the final minute.”

Hudson credited the Stars’ defense for being able to hold onto the lead in the last two minutes of the game.

“The stat we’ve excelled in all year is blocked shots,” Hudson said. “It’s no wonder we had two blocks in the last two minutes of the game. Our defensive effort during that stretch was phenomenal.”

Freshman center Kara Bartels led the Stars offensively with a double-double: 20 points and 15 rebounds. She also had three blocks.

Freshman forward Alexandria Charles came off the bench for LCC to score 12 points.

The Bruins’ Kaylee Glidden led both teams in scoring with 23 points, knocking down four three-pointers and shooting 50 percent from the field.

Hudson said the Stars will work hard to prepare for the regionals.

“We’ll be working on active recovery, fine tuning our offensive sets and continue to work on skill development,” Hudson said.