#4 Women’s Basketball wins tourney title over #11 Kirkwood

11:00 am – Monday, December 31st, 2018

East Peoria, Ill. – In recent years, they’ve been the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers of NJCAA Women’s Basketball. The #4 ICC Cougars (14-1) would meet the #11 Kirkwood Eagles (11-5) once again, this time for the championship of the 38th Annual Cougar Holiday Tournament.

Now, this game was scheduled to start at 4:00 pm on Sunday. It wouldn’t, and for good reason. The first game of the day, the seventh place game between Carl Sandburg and Bryant & Stratton, not only went to three overtime periods, but the final score was 105-100 in favor of Carl Sandburg. That set the following game off by an hour, but the ICC – Kirkwood game was only offset by about 30 minutes.

The matchup is always a big one when these two play, but Marquitta Easley says that it took some getting used to.

“It was scary at first, but then when we got into it, I was like ‘we could do it’. We took it and ran with it.”

Once the big title game finally got underway, neither team would back down, as expected. The Cougars would once again use a balanced scoring attack in the opening 10 minutes, pacing by Emma Henderson’s five points. In fact, five of the eight players used in the first scored. Kirkwood responded with a similar attack. Right away, Ashley Tull converted a three-point play to get the game’s scoring going, and that would not be the only possession where Tull would play a factor for 30th-year head coach Kim Muhl. Peoria High alum Mackenzie Jenkins dropped a trey for the Eagles as well, and these two quality programs would be all tied up after a quarter, 14-14.

ICC’s Abby Coates cited that things didn’t get off to an optimal start. It just took awhile.

“We knew it was going to be a different game and they were going to come fired up ready to play. The first quarter got off to a little bit of a slow start, but once things started picking up, we could get out in transition, and we could take the lead again.”

The second quarter was not as good for Kirkwood. On the other hand, it started to become the Marquitta Easley show. The sophomore for the Cougars scored eight points in the quarter, but the sophomore was far from done. Summer Stoewer, whose three-point shooting is normally the best aspect of her game, wasn’t working against Kirkwood, as she didn’t make any. However, Stoewer did have a six-point second quarter. The Cougars used the efforts from Easley and Stoewer to out-score the Eagles 18-7 in the quarter and take a 32-21 halftime lead.

Although it may have seemed like ICC was in business, Easley says the team had to remember there was still 20 minutes of play left.

“We just had to keep playing our game and play that way throughout the whole game. The first half, all four quarters, we got to do the same thing.”

Holding Kirkwood to single digits was something that ICC head coach Karrie Redeker was pleased with.

“Absolutely. I think our defense was really, really strong at times, but then they (Kirkwood) really dominated in the paint. If we could shut them down under 10, that was definitely huge.”

The 11-point advantage is something that Coates thought was a difference-maker, particularly the efforts of Easley.

“Second quarter, we got out in transition and got some easy baskets right away. ‘Quitta got out on two weak-outs in a row, so we definitely pushed the tempo.”

It was quite evident in the opening half of play that this would be a fairly physical game. Coates went as far to say as it may have been their most physical game of the year.

“I think both teams like the ‘grind it out’ games. We knew that they were going to be physical. I think it was the most physical game we’ve played, but we like that. So, it was a challenge for us, but I don’t think that it was scary to us.”

There would not be much of a question that Kirkwood should come out re-energized. The question became how ICC would handle that. They handled it well. Kirkwood, for the first time in the game, would make multiple threes in the same quarter, three to be exact, and two coming extremely close to each other time-wise. However, ICC did have Marquitta Easley. Easley, who already had 12 points at the break, had another great 10 minutes. She would nearly double her score, having 22 points with another quarter yet to play. Abby Coates (So. – Metamora HS) had her best quarter of the game as well, scoring six of her 12. The Cougars narrowly bested the Eagles in terms of the quarter, leading 52-39 with the fourth quarter on the way.

Although it seemed that ICC had momentum for the most part, Coach Redeker says there was no time to be satisfied.

“I wouldn’t say I was ever comfortable. We knew they were a great defensive team. We knew they were going to be tough in the paint, as far as our kids giving our kids easy looks. We battled. Our big rebounding margin certainly helped. We just got out in transition, too, which was good for us. ‘Quitta put the team on her back. She had a calming presence on the rest of our team.”

Kirkwood wasn’t going down without a fight. Prior to the fourth quarter, they hadn’t scored 20 points in a quarter. They saved the best for last. The Eagles offense fed the hot hand of Anasha Hurst, who would turn out to score half of the Eagles’ points in the final minutes. Again, both sides proved to have balanced scoring, and that stayed true for the fourth quarter, as five Kirkwood players would hit the scoring column. ICC was able to match. Easley, Coates, and Henderson all had solid fourth quarters, combining 15 of ICC’s 19 fourth quarter points. Kathy Pinnock-Branford and Moriah Ward had the other four.

As the seconds ticked down, critical Kirkwood post player Ashley Tull would foul out of the game. Coates thinks that was a key moment of the game.

“She was a big threat in the middle, offensively and defensively. We knew that we could take advantage when she went out, so that was a big momentum swing for us.”

Coach Redeker echoed Coates saying that it sort of dulled both ends of a double-edged sword.

“That was big for us. She was adjusting a little bit with our post players. They (ICC posts) weren’t getting as many easy looks as what we do sometimes. She (Tull) was doing her work on offense too, which was creating some problems for us.”

Abby Coates finished with another double-double, scoring 12 points on 11 rebounds. Marquitta Easley would finish with a team-high and career-high 28 points. She thinks it was a flurry of things that contributed to her game.

“Just, my teammates. They get me the ball on screens, the ball movement, the offense, it was all there.”

In the end, in a rare series of events, Kirkwood and coach Kim Muhl dropped both games of the regular season series against ICC. The last time that happened was the 2015-2016 season, when the Cougars ended the season with a loss in the National Championship game and a (32-5) final record. The final score favored the Cougars, 71-59. The win moved ICC to (14-1) in the 2018 calendar year, something that Coach Redeker likes, but takes with a grain of salt.

“We’ve just got to keep getting better. I think our team sees that we can do good things, but we know that on any given night, anyone can beat anyone. They’ve got to allow our staff to keep pushing them. We’ve got some things that we want to put in for the second half of the season, but we just want to keep taking one day at a time.”

The (14-1) record is something that makes Marquitta Easley “proud of my girls”.

The Cougars are off, in terms of games, until next Saturday, January 5th. They’ll travel to Division-I Moberly Area (7-6) for a 5:00 pm tipoff. Coates thinks the break is needed.

“It’s gonna feel good. Three games in three days is a lot, especially with the good teams that we’ve played. Everybody’s going to recover and get back on track for practice.”

Easley, quite simply, agrees.

“We just have to come back focused. Same attitude, just got to be focused.”

The Moberly Area – ICC game is scheduled to tip off from Moberly, Missouri at 5:00 pm.

#4 ICC Scoring: Easley (28), Coates (12), Stoewer (12), Henderson (10), Ward (4), Faulkner (2), Pinnock-Branford (2), Becker (1)

#11 Kirkwood Scoring: Jenkins (13), Tull (11), Hurst (10), Bradford (7), Lipsey (6), Mullinnix (6), Gaston (4), Kennedy (2)

#4 ICC Team Stats: Field Goals (27-52 / 51.9%), Threes (3-11 / 27.3%), Free Throws (14-22 / 63.6%), 44 rebounds, 16 fouls, 16 assists, 17 turnovers, 6 blocks, 4 steals

#11 Kirkwood Team Stats: Field Goals (22-67 / 32.8%), Threes (6-27 / 22.2%), Free Throws (9-13 / 69.2%), 32 rebounds, 17 fouls, 13 assists, 14 turnovers, 1 block, 5 steals

#4 ICC Individual Leaders: Field Goals (Stoewer & Coates / both 5-9), Threes (Emma Henderson / 2-6), Free Throws (Marquitta Easley / 5-8), Rebounds (Abby Coates / 11), Assists (Kathy Pinnock-Branford / 5), Blocks (Abby Coates / 3), Steals (Four with 1 each)

#11 Kirkwood Individual Leaders: Field Goals (Jenkins / 5-11), Threes (Three with 2 each), Free Throws (Tull / 5-5), Rebounds (Two with 6 each), Assists (Hurst / 4), Blocks (Robinson / 1), Steals (Hurst / 2)