Women's Basketball punches their ticket to Joplin as they capture the Region I DII title over Scottsdale
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Scottsdale Community College | 14 | 9 | 9 | 17 | 49 |
|
Mesa Community College | 12 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 52 |
Scottsdale Community College
| Game Statistics | Scottsdale Community College | Mesa Community College |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (18-52) | (19-60) |
| Field Goal % | 34.6% | 31.7% |
| Rebounds | 33 | 37 |
| Assists | 13 | 12 |
| Turnovers | 16 | 9 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 10 | 10 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 7 | 9 |
| Pts in the Paint | 14 | 22 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 2 | 8 |
| Bench Pts | 3 | 6 |
Sunday March 10, 2024 - 5:00 p.m. | Dylan DeVlieger
The Mesa Community College Women's Basketball team won their 11th Region I DII title in program history on Saturday night as they took down No. 3 seed Scottsdale Community College, 52-49 in a thrilling contest that went down to the wire.
The Lady T-Birds captured their 8th title under head coach Kori Stephenson who was filled with excitement not just for herself but the team as Mesa booked an automatic bid into the 2024 NJCAA DII Women's Basketball Championship in Joplin, MO.
"Excitement, the girls played really hard, they played with grit and toughness so we're flatout excited," Stephenson said in an interview with The Mesa Legend.
Before the game began excitement filled the air of Theo Heap Gymnasium as the faithful fanbases of both teams filled the stands to witness a rematch of the 2023 Region I DII Semi-finals in which the No. 3 Artichokes knocked off the No. 2 Thunderbirds to advance to the Finals against Pima Community College.
From the jump much like in their contest against Chandler-Gilbert on Thursday the Lady T-Birds came out a bit slow as SCC built up a 7-1 lead before Mesa was able to make a field goal. MCC would claw their way back into the ball game as they would cut the lead to just two, 14-12 going into the second quarter.
In the second period MCC gained their first lead of the contest off a Miquedah Taliman three pointer. After sophomore forward Danay Williams answered back with a layup to regain the lead for Scottsdale both teams went ice cold from the field as the Artichokes and T-Birds would both remain scoreless for the next two minutes and 45 seconds.
Until the halftime buzzer sounded both teams traded baskets back and forth as Mesa would take a 25-23 lead into the locker room.
In the first half SCC shot 43.2% from the field but just 22.5% from deep as the T-Birds were 29.4% from the floor and 20.5% from deep. The big story of the first half besides both team's struggles from beyond distance was Mesa's performance rebounding the basketball.
Mesa kept the Artichokes off the offensive glass in the opening half which is no easy feat as SCC averaged just over 14 offensive rebounds per game going into Saturday night.
In the third quarter both teams would go back and forth matching basket for basket and defensive stop for defensive stop. MCC would go on a momentum shifting 5-0 late in the quarter thanks to a Mackenzie Shivers steal leading to a Jaida Brooks layup and another timely Miquedah Taliman three-pointer. At the end of the third period Mesa held to a 38-32 advantage.
In that third period Mesa keyed in on one of Artichokes best players, Danay Williams who just had a monster 18 point 18 rebound performance against Pima on Thursday.
The combination of strength and size from Britnay Kogbara and Brooklyn Scurry turned Williams away time after time as she went 0-6 from the field in the quarter while getting two of her attempts blocked by Scurry.
In a postgame interview with The Mesa Legend, Stephenson gave credit to her frontcourt pair as they stepped up on Saturday night against one of the best players in the conference.
"Britany Kogbara and Brooklyn Scurry did a phenomenal job on Danay, Danay Williams is a very, very, very good player for Scottsdale and they worked their butt off for us, defensively they did a fantastic job," said Stephenson.
The fourth quarter was shaping up to be a battle, and neither team was going to give an inch as Socttsdale was looking to win their first Region I DII title under head coach Tasha Washington, and Mesa looked to reclaim their throne atop Region I.
The Artichokes came out hot in the final period as they rattled off a 7-0 run to start the quarter before Stephenson wanted to talk it over with her team.
SCC would keep their lead until the 4:08 mark when the T-Birds came up with another big steal, this time by Kamiyah Hurd which led to another Jaida Brooks fast break layup as MCC would take a 43-42 advantage.
Coming down to clutch time Mesa needed to be a knockout punch and that came from one of the T-Birds leaders, Mackenzie Shivers.
With 2:14 left in the contest Mesa grasped to a 47-45 lead when Shivers would pop up to the top of the key, catch a pass from Miquedah Taliman, rise up from downtown and hit nothing but net to give her team a 50-45 lead.
In such a high pressure situation Shivers was confident in herself to hit the three even though she was 0-8 from deep up until that point.
"Just confidence all season, coach Kori even at the beginning of the game just told me keep shooting, that one looked good when I let it go and I hit it," said Shivers.
With a five point lead and over two minutes left the game was far from over for Mesa and the Artichokes were not going to go down without a fight as Ella Hoover hit her second three-pointer of the quarter to cut the lead to just three with 13 seconds left.
MCC would call a timeout and on the out of bounds play attempted to get the ball to Brooks or Shivers, both of who were on point from the free throw line to that point as Brooks was 4-4 and Shivers was 3-4.
Knowing this, the Artichokes did a great job defending the inbounds pass and nearly caused a five second violation until Taliman was able to find Britnay Kogbara who was immediately fouled.
To that point the freshman forward was 2-4 from the charity stripe as she stepped up with a chance to put the championship on ice. The trip to the line would not go her way as she missed both, giving SCC the chance to tie the game with a three as they would grab the defensive rebound and call a timeout off the missed free throw.
Out of the timeout Scottsdale chose to work the 11 seconds down till the last moment as they moved the ball around and found Makeylei Snyder who took a deep three-pointer to send the game into overtime.
As the buzzer sounded Snyder's shot would come up short, sealing the fate for the Artichokes and sending the Lady T-Birds into a frenzy as the bench rushed the court in triumph.
Mesa got the clean sweep of Scottsdale and avenged their Semi-Finals loss just a year ago to the Artichokes. For Shivers, becoming a champion and helping her team punch their ticket to Joplin was sweet, but taking down SCC after not being able to help her team in the playoff game last year due to injury was even better.
"It's definitely sweeter, especially since I wasn't able to play last year. It was just hard watching and not being able to do anything," said Shivers, "to be able to play the championship in front of our home fans and just to knock them out feels good."
Mesa had played a tight game against Scottsdale in two of their three games this year prior to Saturday night, winning both of those contests by one and four points respectively.
Keeping their composure and executing down the stretch is something that Stephenson and her staff try to instill in their team so when big moments come, they are ready for the challenge.
"...the composure and confidence that our starters had, they didn't waiver, they knew the task at hand to get a stop and move on to that next play and they were able to do that tonight," said Stephenson in an interview with The Mesa Legend.
Jaida Brooks led all scorers with 22 points as she was named the Region I DII Finals Most Outstanding Player. Mackenzie Shivers had 10 points, six assists, and two steals. Though Kamiyah Hurd did not have a strong night shooting the ball she came up big on the glass grabbing 11 rebounds for Mesa.
The Lady T-Birds will now wait until Tuesday at 12 p.m. local to find out what seed they will be in Joplin, MO. Watch the 2024 NJCAA DII Women's Basketball Selection Show on the NJCAA Network by clicking here.
