Lady Raptors Scrape by with Gritty Win in Home Opener.
Jordan Odom, point guard, driving to the lane.
November 25, 2019
The Montgomery College Lady Raptors beat the Rowan College Lady Barons 76-74 in their first home game. Point guard Jordan Odom led all Lady Raptors in scoring with 18 points along with 4 rebounds and 5 assists.
The Lady Barons started the game with a 10-0 run, prompting Coach Tarlouh Gasque to call a quick timeout to rally her anxious players.
“This is the first home game…hopefully we learned from it. We just got to settle down. I had to call a lot of them over and say settle down,” said Coach Gasque after the game.
After the timeout, the Lady Raptors had a 10-0 run of their own and had the largest lead of the game, a 9-point lead in the middle of the second quarter. However, each time the Lady Raptors would start to construct little 5-0 runs, seemingly pulling away, the Lady Barons would call a timeout and devise a great play rallying their own counter runs to keep the game within striking distance. The game had a total of 3 lead changes and 5 ties. Part of this was thanks to their excellent defense, forcing the Lady Raptors into committing 23 turnovers and scoring 28 points of them. Also, the Lady Barons were able to get to the free throw line with 37 free throw attempts, almost double of the Lady Raptors’ attempts.
“We literally gave them points with the free throws…fourth quarter when I called that timeout it was to talk them about the team foul differential, let’s not get no more so that they don’t get any more free throws.” said Coach Gasque
Despite this, the Lady Raptors held the advantage in field goal percentage, three-point percentage, attempts, and shots made, points in the paint, rebounds, and blocks. Ultimately, through timely late game shots from guards Khienya Benjamin and Jordan Odom and a missed game-winner from the Lady Barons with 3 seconds left, the Lady Raptors were able to hold the Lady Barons at bay to rise to 3-0.
“We’re growing. We got a lot of youth on the team. A lot of players getting used to playing with each other. We just got to do better and I trust that we will get better and pull through,” said Coach Gasque.
