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  • TVCC's Brittney Dukes (25) takes a shot over Walters State's LaKrystle Goss during the Lady Cardinals 70-53 win Tuesday at the Bicentennial Center. Charles Stiff photo

    Dukes takes a shot vs. Walters State

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March 17, 2010

NJCAA WOMEN'S NATIONAL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Proving ground

After 70-53 win over Walters State, TVCC gets shot at No. 1 Jefferson County

Jayson Larson The Athens Review

SALINA, Kan. — If the Lady Cardinals want to know if they've got a team that can contend for a national championship, here's their chance.

TVCC (29-5) rallied from a first-half deficit to set down the Walters State (Tenn.) Lady Senators with a 70-53 win Tuesday during first-round action at the NJCAA Women's National Basketball Tournament.

The win earned the Lady Cards a chance to face the No. 1 team in the country and the tournament's No. 1 seed, Jefferson County (Mo.). Jefferson County was a 77-56 winner over Williston State (N.D.) in another first-round game Tuesday.That game will be played at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Bicentennial Center.

Tuesday night's win -- which came after a slow start, as TVCC games go -- was the Lady Cardinals' first in the first round of the national tournament in their last three appearances. They fell in the first round of the 2008 and 2009 national tournaments, immediately eliminating themselves for a chance at a championship.

"I know it was nerves," TVCC Interim Head Coach Elena Lovato said of the rocky start by her team. "They were in the locker room talking about having butterflies. ... But now we've got this first one out of the way and we should be ready to roll."

The Lady Cards, who trailed by six at one point in the first half, broke open a tie game with an 8-2 run midway through the second half. After LaKrystle Goss' fastbreak layup tied the game at 37-37 with 15:07 left, Brittney Dukes, Lesha Dunn and Shaquita Wrighten hit consecutive buckets to put the Lady Cards up by six.

The Lady Senators (25-3) cut the lead back to two, 50-48, with 8:21 left on a layup via a turnover by Melanie Hemphill.

The Lady Cardinals then put the game away with a 12-0 run that included five points from Marcisa McMillan and a clutch three-pointer from Carleeda Green. By the time the run ended with another Dunn basket, the Lady Cards held a 62-48 lead.

They should consider themselves lucky to have had a lead heading into halftime. And it was a narrow one at that, 30-28.

They turned the ball over 13 times in the first half, but the Lady Senators were only able to turn those miscues into five points. For the game, the Lady Senators shot only 27.4 percent from the floor.

The Lady Senators were also dominant on the offensive boards early on, getting two, three -- and once, four -- chances after their own misses. They got four chances at a shot with 3:41 left in the half and finally capitalized on Ashley Thurman's putback. Less than 20 seconds later, Jessica Jones' nearly uncontested layup stretched Walters State's lead to 28-23 and induced a time out from Lovato.

The Lady Cards grabbed the lead back before half with a 7-0 run. It started with Michelle White's pull-up jumper on a two-on-one break, and Gloria Brown got TVCC to within one, 28-27, when she took a pass from Marcisa McMillan and hit a reverse layup with 1:52 on the clock.

TVCC went on top with 56 seconds left after a loose ball bounced right to McMillan, who nailed a three to give her team the 30-28 lead. Walters State had no answer -- the Lady Senators remained scoreless over the final 3:25.

They also failed to score over the final 3:14 of the second half.

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