Spartan women start 1-3

The Southwestern Community College women’s basketball team opened their season Nov. 1 with a 52-46 win over Metropolitan Community College. Since then, they’ve dropped three straight, losing to Highland Community College of Kansas, Johnson County Community College and Graceland University JV.

Monday the Spartans hosted Graceland in their home opener, falling 62-51 after a slow second quarter gave the Yellow Jackets the edge.

The Spartans’ Roslynn Huston had a game-high 19 points, followed by 15 from teammate Jaide McPhee, but Graceland had three double-digit scorers off the bench, combining for 34 of the team’s 62 points.

In the first quarter, Southwestern’s Jordyn Hall drove the basket for two, putting the Spartans up 6-3. The Spartans were up 14-11 halfway through the quarter, but turnovers plagued Southwestern.

During the course of the game, the Spartans turned the ball over 32 times compared to the Yellow Jackets’ nine times. Southwestern struggled against the press, contributing to a number of turnovers.

Azareeyah Heaven led Graceland’s defense with 11 steals and a block.

The first quarter ended in a 17-17 tie after SWCC’s Fantine Adgnot made a half-court buzzer beater. It was one of two 3-pointers made by the Spartans. The other was by Malaina Rodriguez. The Yellow Jackets made four from behind the arc.

Though Graceland was only 28.2% from the field, they crashed the boards, coming up with 32 total rebounds, including 19 offensive. The Yellow Jackets put up 85 shots throughout the game, Southwestern with 29 defensive rebounds.

Only taking 43 shots themselves, SWCC was 46.5% from the field and logged four offensive rebounds. McPhee had a game-high 10 rebounds, followed by Huston with nine.

Both teams had shooting issues from the free throw line, the Yellow Jackets going 10 of 21 and the Spartans nine of 16.

Halfway through the second quarter, Southwestern trailed by just three points, down 21-19. In the minutes that followed, Graceland put up six unanswered points to take a lead the Spartans would never catch.

McPhee broke the scoring spree on an open layup off an assist from Huston. Scoring became much more frequent through the final two minutes of the half, the Yellow Jackets scoring on a 3-pointer followed by a Huston layup.

Graceland scored eight points in the final 90 seconds of the half. Throughout the second half, the Yellow Jackets maintained a 10-point cushion.

The Spartans will return to action Thursday and Friday at the Faith Classic in Ankeny. Their Saturday home game against Buena Vista University JV has been canceled. SWCC returns home Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against Iowa Western Community College.