Brooke Reynolds and Alex Bessey each packed a scoring punch as the Central Maine Community College women’s basketball team opened the USCAA Basketball National Championship tournament with a convincing 78-45 win over Davis on Monday in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
The win advances the Mustangs to the national semifinals.
Central Maine Community College (Stock photo)
Reynolds, and Edward Little graduate, put up a game-high 24 points. Bessey, who was a standout at Spruce Mountain, added 19 points, including three 3-pointers.
“Both of them were pretty relentless,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said.
Reynolds made 9-of-14 shots from the field and 6-of-8 at the free-throw line. She also had game-highs of 11 rebounds and five steals. Bessey grabbed nine boards and blocked three shots.
Nine of Reynolds’ rebounds came off the offensive glass. The Mustangs out-rebounded the Falcons 65-42, and 28 of those boards were offensive.
“It wasn’t just our bigs, it was our guards, too,” Morong said. “We created so many extra opportunities for ourselves, and for the most part, they got one look, and that was it.”
CMCC forced 22 turnovers and only committed 12. Morong was especially impressed with the Mustangs’ freshman point guards, starter Rebecca Davila and reserve Seirra Wallace, who only committed one turnover between the first national tournament game for each of them.
Morong said that Davis led the USCAA in 3-point attempts, averaging more than 30 per game. On Monday, CMCC focused on limiting the Falcons’ attempts from beyond the arc, and Davis attempted only 22 and made only four.
“We wanted to make their shooters do something other than shoot,” Morong said. “We challenged them to drive, and they didn’t really want to.”
Elizabeth Singleton topped Davis with 19 points, while Alison Aten had 10 points and 10 boards.
Next up for second-seeded CMCC (24-2) is a matchup with No. 3 Penn State Lehigh Valley in the semifinals Tuesday at 1 p.m.
The Mustangs defeated Lehigh Valley in the 2017 national championship game. The Nittany Lions are similar to the Mustangs: regular-season and conference tournament champions who play a lot of players.
“They’re legitimate national tournament contenders,” Morong said. “It should be a war tomorrow.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
