By Brian Ruth
The Scene staff
St. Louis Community College basketball is poised to establish a winning tradition following good seasons by both men’s and women’s teams, ending with tournament appearances.
The Lady Archers fell two wins short of a third consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association tournament appearance, but still finished with a silver medal in the Region XVI tourney.
The men’s team made it to the NJCAA national finals, winning two games and finishing eighth. To get there, they won the regional final and, overall, doubled their number of wins from last season.
Women hang tough
The Lady Archers (17-8) earned a trip to the Region XVI title game against North Central College by defeating Cottey College 82-47.
The team also avoided a season series sweep by North Central Missouri College, winning their first matchup 79-59. The Archers opened with a 14-point lead over the Pirates after one half and maintained it the rest of the way.
In that game, standouts Kalah Martin and Deborah Holcomb combined for 40 points, with Marshaya Sangster providing 10 points from the bench.
“At that point, I thought we had turned the corner,” said women’s coach Shelly Etheridge.
The women’s squad entered the Region XVI Tournament with the second seed, one slot behind North Central. The Lady Archers were third-seeded a year ago going into the contest.
The second half of the schedule was packed with road games. The team finished the season on a 5-6 slip, with two losing visits to North Central.
“We were a little overconfident,” Etheridge said. “They thought they could flip the switch on or off whenever it was necessary.”
“Quite frankly, we weren’t good enough to do that,” said the veteran coach. Etheridge has a lifetime record of 246-141, while going 76-41 in four years with the Archers.
The team brought a strong offense led by freshman guard Deborah Holcomb, although Etheridge said the standout players varied from game to game.
“Every game was different,” she said. ” I truly don’t think everyone was consistent every game.”
Martin, a sophomore, along with Holcomb and Caris Johnson, both freshmen, shared the most time on the floor. Sophomore Zuri Hill made the most of her 3.8 minutes per game with 9.3 rebounds and 11 points a game, playing the inside.
Men 8th in nation
In his first year as a collegiate head coach, Randy Reed took the men’s team (22-12) to the NJCAA tournament, where they won a pair of games and placed eighth.
“It was a real tough, hard battle to reach that tournament,” Reed said.
At one point, St. Louis staved off elimination in the tournament with a 92-79 win over the Dean College Bulldogs, with five players finishing with double figures. They also beat Potomac State in the tournament 72-70 before ending the season by dropping the seventh-place game to South Suburban College, 70-61.
For Reed, the regional final against Penn Valley, which ended in a two-point win, 76-74, for the Archers, was a standout moment.
“That was a huge, huge win for us,” Reed said.
It was followed by a district championship in which St. Louis defeated Mid-South Community College 91-77.
With three state championships at McCluer North High School behind him, Reed now hopes to see St. Louis become a proving ground for Division I talent.
Cortez Conners, who averaged 16 points per game, finished the season in second place for both 3-point shooting and field goals made at the Division II level.
Conners has signed to play at Cal-State Bakersfield, a Division I school.
The coach’s son, forward Randy Reed II, with 21 points and eight rebounds per game, garnered the region’s Player of the Year award. Other sophomores are also attracting attention.
Reed II, who also took third team All-American honors in NJCAA Division II, counts the game-winning shot that defeated Penn Valley as a season highlight.
“All of the sophomores are getting recruited,” said Reed II. “Every sophomore will have a school to go to.”
Coach Reed said: “St. Louis is a very fertile ground for recruiting basketball. From that, we have to get four more tough bodies to compete next year.
“We’re doing OK in the paint, but we’re not physical enough for a lot of these bigger-sized teams.”
Etheridge said keeping team leadership steady will go far with her squad.
“They are a very good group,” she said. “This season has been humbling.”
For Etheridge, the fun begins in preparing for next season.
“It gets to be fun when you know there’s plenty of work to do,” she said. “Either step up, or find out that you don’t have the capability.”