Aniya Taylor of Catawba Valley Community College (23), a freshman from Chapel Hill, battles with Autum Morings of Cape Fear Community College in Friday’s game in Louisburg, won by Cape Fear./CODY DALTON, CATAWBA VALLEY ATHLETICS
HobbsDailyReport.com
LOUISBURG – Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) ended another successful women’s basketball season on Friday but fell short of making a national tournament appearance.
Third-seeded Cape Fear Community College cruised past the second-seeded Red Hawks, winning 90-54 in a Region X/District J semifinal at Louisburg College.
CVCC SEASON RESULTS: http://gocvcc.com/sports/wbkb/2018-19/schedule
CVCC finished 24-6 and won more than 20 games for the third straight season.
“I am proud of my ladies,” said CVCC head coach Tisha England after completing her sixth season. “Most people didn’t think that we would get here and that we wouldn’t make it, but we believed in ourselves.”
In her final junior college game, sophomore forward Zharia Brown led the Red Hawks with 23 points and 16 rebounds — her 11th double double of the season. Fellow sophomore Sherry Johnson added 11 points and six rebounds.
CVCC was plagued by poor field goal shooting, making just 2-of-14 attempts in the first quarter and 7-of-31 attempts by halftime.
Cape Fear (24-4) led 43-19 at the half.
“At the beginning of the game, we just didn’t knock down shots,” England said. “We just didn’t finish shots, and it kind of caught us off guard a little bit.
“Our defense kind of slacked a little bit. We picked it back up, but we had dug ourselves a hole, and it was just hard to get back out of it.”
The Red Hawks played catch up during the third and fourth quarters, but continued to struggle from the field, finishing at 25.2 shooting percentage (22-for-87). CVCC also committed 22 turnovers.
Friday’s game was the final for five CVCC sophomores — Brown, Johnson, Alizeya Mitchell, Milequa Eason and Danielle Rainey.
England said replacing the veteran group will be difficult, but the Red Hawks have a talented group of freshman returning as sophomores.
“It’s going to be hard,” England said. “Every year it is hard to replace a group, but the Lord always sends me another group through for us to keep moving forward. We’ll be back.”
- Reported by CVCC Sports Information
REGION X/DISTRICT J WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
First round results
No. 6 Wake Tech 70, No. 11 Lenoir 37
No. 7 USC Salkehatchie 86, No. 10 Fayetteville Tech 49
No. 9 Brunswick 69, No 8 Guilford Tech 60
Thursday’s quarterfinal results
(at Louisburg)
No. 1 Bryant & Stratton 80, No. 9 Brunswick 45
No. 5 Clinton 93, No 4 Louisburg 82
No. 2 CVCC 88, No. 7 USC Salkehatchie 50
No. 3 Cape Fear 83, No. 6 Wake Tech 70
Friday’s semfinals
(at Louisburg)
No. 1 Bryant & Stratton (24-5) vs. No. 5 Clinton (10-15), 2 p.m.
No. 3 Cape Fear 90, No. 2 CVCC 54
Saturday’s championship
(at Louisburg)
No. 1 Bryant & Stratton (25-5) vs. No. 3 Cape Fear (24-4), 1 p.m.