After trailing by 12 with under eight minutes to go in last night’s Jayhawk West game at Colby, the Pratt Community College womens basketball team rallied to make a game of it late before coming up short 50-43.
The Beavers trailed 22-19 at halftime as neither team could get much going offensively. Pratt hit just 26.9 percent of its shots while Colby was even worse at 25.9 percent from the floor.
Phylicia Freeman cut the Colby lead to 33-27 on a pair of free throws with 11:50 left, but the Lady Trojans scored six straight points to open up a 39-27 lead with under eight minutes to play.
After Tasha Wagoner hit a free throw for Colby, Freeman scored off an assist from Dashia Williams, making it a ten-point game.
As the game clock ticked under six minutes, Freeman buried an NBA-range three-pointer to make it 39-32 Colby.
At the other end, Wagoner missed a three, and Pratt came right back down the court. The Beavers’ run kept going as sophomore Corinna Hoyt drained a three to make it a four-point game with five minutes and change left.
But the Beavers couldn’t keep the momentum on their side, missing on back-to-back trips.
Colby finally broke the scoring drought when Alecia Palm hit a three to put her team up 42-35 with 1:52 left.
Seconds later, Freeman was fouled but couldn’t get either shot to fall and PCC was down seven with time running out.
Sophomore point guard Jazmine Bell gave a foul, but Colby’s Danisha Cole hit both ends of the one-and-one and Bell took a seat on the bench with her fifth foul.
Down 44-35 with 1:36 to go, the Beavers turned to Freeman, but her shot was off the mark and the rebound was stolen away by Colby.
Pratt gave another foul, and Wagoner missed the front end of the bonus, giving the Beavers another chance.
But with a minute remaining, Hoyt’s three-pointer didn’t fall, and Colby’s 6-1 Hannah Thornton — who missed the teams’ Dec. 2 game in Pratt — got the rebound.
She made both free throws for a 46-35 lead with 57 seconds left.
Pratt did get a three from sophomore Whitney Slater with 30 seconds left, but Colby hit just enough free throws to hold on for the win despite the Beavers’ attempts to rally.
Pratt scored eight points in the final 30 seconds, but it was just not enough to overcome a night full of offensive struggles.
The Beavers connected on just 16 of 65 field goals (24.6 percent), but they did make six of 18 three-pointers (33 percent) on the night.
Freeman finished with 17 points, but had another subpar shooting night, going seven-for-27 from the floor and just two-of-six at the free throw line. She also controlled nine rebounds and blocked two shots.
Hoyt added 11 points on three-of-six shooting from long range, plus had two steals.
Pratt got nine points from Slater while Dashia Williams added four points and five rebounds.
Colby, which shot just 31.9 percent from the floor, got 15 points from Wagoner, 12 from Thornton and ten from Cole.
Pratt fell to 3-20 on the season and 2-7 in Jayhawk West games while Colby improved to 3-20 and 1-8 in the West.
The Beavers will host No. 23 Cloud County Saturday night in the Beaver Dome. Cloud (20-2, 7-2) is coming off a 55-48 win over Barton County last night and will be looking to stay in the thick of the Jayhawk West title chase.
Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. in the Beaver Dome, with the mens game following at 8 p.m.
Colby 50, Pratt 43
PCC: Phylicia Freeman 7-27 2-6 17, Corinna Hoyt 3-8 2-2 11, Whitney Slater 3-8 1-2 9, Dashia Williams 2-7 0-1 4, Jazmine Bell 1-6 0-2 2, Ricci Lambert 0-0 0-2 0, Laramie Lawrence 0-4 0-0 0, Abbey Rudd 0-5 0-0 0. TOTALS 16-65 5-13 43.
CCC: Tasha Wagoner 4-10 5-8 15, Hannah Thornton 4-10 4-5 12, Danisha Cole 2-13 6-8 10, Alecia Palm 2-6 0-0 6, Destini Stewart 1-1 0-0 3, Crystal Kinderknecht 1-5 0-0 2, Tamara Williams 1-2 909 2. TOTALS 15-47 15-22 50.
PCC 19 24 — 43
CCC 22 28 — 50
3-point goals — PCC 6-18 (Hoyt 3-6, Slater 2-3, Freeman 1-3, Bell 0-1, Lawrence 0-2, Rudd 0-3), CCC 5-12 (Wagoner 2-3, Palm 2-6, Stewart 1-1, Cole 0-1). Rebounds — PCC 28 (Freeman 9), CCC 33 (Wagoner 12). Assists — PCC 9 (Bell 5), CCC 10 (Wagoner 4). Turnovers — PCC 13, CCC 15. Total fouls — PCC 19, CCC 12. Fouled out — Bell. Technicals — None.
Colby, Kan. —
