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The Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s basketball team’s season came to an end Tuesday, March 3, with an 80-69 loss at Delta College in the first round of the NJCAA regional tournament.
In their first experience of postseason play in just their second year of the school’s athletic program, the Centurions (7-7 MCCAA Northern, 10-18 overall) earned the fifth and final spot in the MCCAA Northern Conference. In the regular season, MCC and the Pioneers (9-5 MCCAA Northern, 17-13 overall) split the two-game series, each winning at home.
In the postseason game, Delta established a lead and held it throughout much of the first part of the game, but an 11-3 run, capped with a layup by freshman guard Baylor Syrjala (Lakeview, Mich.), tied the game at 44-44 with 2:59 to go in the third quarter.
The Pioneers quickly took the lead back, going on a 9-0 run until MCC freshman Kendall Stout (Stanton, Mich.) nailed a 3-pointer to bring the Centurions back within a two-score deficit — 53-47 — with nine minutes to go in the game.
Syrjala cut it to a six-point lead once again, taking a pass from freshman teammate Karlie Bacon (Stanton, Mich.) and draining a 3-pointer to make it 60-54 with six minutes to play. On MCC’s next offensive play, Bacon matched Syrjala with a 3-pointer of her own 20 seconds later, to pull within five.
Every time MCC cut the lead, Delta would answer, however. With time dwindling down, and the Pioneers holding a 69-61 lead, the Centurions were forced to foul to save time, but it was the closest they would get as the Pioneers secured the win down the stretch.
MCC head coach Scott Pedigo said cold shooting and foul trouble hampered his team by the fourth quarter.
“Going in, our plan was to shoot outside. We knew they struggled against the zone, so I put some options in for us. It worked well for the majority of the time,” Pedigo said. “By the second and third quarter, it clicked for us, but by the fourth quarter, Baylor and Karlie both had four fouls and had to sit on the bench.”
The Centurions fell behind quickly in the game, down 37-28 after the first quarter, but Pedigo said his team rebounded in the second quarter, finally hitting shots.
“Our problem against Delta, defensive rebounding, has been a problem for us all year,” Pedigo said. “But I thought we did better in the third quarter. We can do the right things, be in the right spots, but being 5-foot-5 instead of 5-foot-11, it just didn’t work out for us.”
The Pioneers outrebounded the Centurions, 37-29, and won the second-chance points statistic, 15-11. Pedigo said because of that, his team had to “dig ourselves out of a hole.”
Emily Putnam (Sheridan, Mich.), the sophomore team leader, said pre-game jitters were something she and her teammates had to overcome, considering they were participating in their first playoff game, a goal of theirs since the start of the season.
“I think we were definitely ready for this,” Putnam said. “We took a loss in Delta by one point but we beat them at home. They had the home-court advantage and that’s tough to beat.”
After the game, Pedigo said he and the team did not talk basketball.
“We just talked about our journey with the sophomores, where we came from and where we are now,” he said. “I’m thankful for the foundation that our sophomores built. And with our freshmen, now it’s their turn and we will rely on them to get us to the next level.”
Putnam was one of four sophomores who finished their second year with MCC. The others included Emma Rewa (Greenville, Mich.), Kennedy Schilling (Flushing, Mich.) and Emma Kosinski (Lakeview, Mich.). Despite the season-ending loss, Putnam was quite proud of how her team performed, in the game and all season.
“I’m most proud of those who stuck with it,” she said. “It was easy to just be done with the year we had last year but us four, we stuck with it, kept at it and we were able to see what we accomplished.”
With the addition of this year’s freshmen, Putnam said she enjoyed the season as a real, full team. Now that the sophomores, called “Team 1,” have completed their journey, Putnam hopes they have made a lasting impact on the program.
“I hope they remember us by the fact we never gave up,” she said. “That we worked hard no matter how many people we had, that we always came in with a good mindset.”
Putnam said she appreciated the fans that followed the team throughout her two seasons at MCC. Now, she said, it is up to the freshman to pick up where she leaves.
“Next year, they definitely have to work in the offseason,” she said of the freshmen. “I think they all have the determination to do that. They’ll get farther than this year if they do. They just have to go to work.”
The Centurions were led by Stout with 18 points and seven rebounds while Syrjala finished with 15 points and four assists. Bacon had 10 points and four rebounds and Putnam finished with eight points, four rebounds and three assists. Freshman Emma Rehkopf (Belding, Mich.) came off the bench to score 10 points.
Delta was led by Aya Mosley, who had a game-high 23 points and six rebounds.