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MCC misfires against Mustangs

Shooting woes arise in loss to Mount Mercy JV

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown Community College’s Carolina Rodriguez Sanchez (23) shoots over Mount Mercy’s Iva Sicar during the first half of Monday’s game at the Student Activity Center. Rodriguez Sanchez tallied a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Tigers in defeat.

Two games removed from the end of the program’s 22-game losing streak, the Marshalltown Community College women’s basketball team had already abandoned the principles that brought about that long-awaited victory.

The Mount Mercy junior varsity squad never trailed in handing the Tigers a decisive setback, leading by as many as 18 points in an eventual 55-40 triumph on Monday evening inside the Student Activity Center.

The visiting Mustangs were clinging to a four-point advantage at halftime before outscoring MCC 14-4 in the third quarter. Mount Mercy scored the first seven points of the second half, thanks in part to a paltry shooting performance by the hometown Tigers. Marshalltown (1-7) shot 2-for-21 (9.5 percent) from the field in the deciding stanza, going 0-for-7 from 3-point range while also getting outrebounded 19-10 as the Mustangs rode out to a double-digit lead.

Mount Mercy’s Victoria Strickland knocked down a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining in the third to give her team a 43-29 lead going into the final frame, and all MCC could do is break even with the Mustangs over the final 10 minutes.

For the game, the Tigers shot just 25.4 percent (18-for-71) from the field, plagued by a 4-for-29 (13.8 percent) effort from beyond the arc.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown Community College freshman Keelie Eitel (1) shoots in front of Mount Mercy defender Victoria Strickland (34) during the first half of Monday’s game at MCC.

MCC head coach Cody Freland pointed to the opening stretch of the second half as the deciding factor in his team’s defeat.

“That was the point we dug ourselves in a hole and couldn’t dig ourselves out,” he said. “We went back to all the bad habits that we did at the beginning of the year of one pass, one shot, and you don’t win games doing that.”

Getting outrebounded 50-33 by an NAIA program’s junior varsity squad with no discernible height advantage was problematic, too.

“I can live with it when it’s the No. 2 team in the country and their kids can jump vertically and have their hand almost at the rim,” Freland said, referring to Saturday’s 40-point loss at Johnson County CC. “There’s opportunities for us to go and get offensive rebounds, but we just don’t go and crash. Some of it is learning just the style of play or kids coming from other countries and learning or adapting to how we’re asking them to play. It’s an adjustment we’re trying to work through.”

The only outlier for MCC has been sophomore forward Carolina Rodriguez Sanchez, who notched her fourth double-double of the season to lead the Tigers in Monday’s loss. Rodriguez Sanchez paced the team with 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting to go with 11 rebounds.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Rodriguez Sanchez has led Marshalltown in rebounding in all but one game this season, and she’s now averaging a double-double of 10.4 points and 10 rebounds per game. The Vigo, Spain, native ranks third in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference and 34th nationally in rebounding.

Rodriguez Sanchez scored eight straight points for the Tigers in the first quarter to help bring them to a 14-all tie with Mount Mercy, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.

Katharina Berg and Ianara Morbidoni added seven points apiece but combined for 10 of MCC’s 19 turnovers. The rest of the team shot a combined 4-for-33 (12 percent) as the Tigers were held to their season-low scoring output for the second game in a row.

“Obviously we missed a lot of layups … but I think shot selection was the biggest thing that disappointed me,” Freland said. “We really preach about not taking those one-shot, one-pass opportunities. Or when we’re in fast breaks, not just settling for a jumpshot. Let’s get to the rim, go finish, create — those two things are kind of what frustrated me the most about this game.”

Marshalltown goes on the road for its next two games, starting with Wednesday’s road trip to Cedar Rapids for a showdown with top-ranked Kirkwood. The Tigers face DMACC on Saturday in Boone.

Mount Mercy JV 55, Marshalltown CC 40

MOUNT MERCY — Comried 3-9 0-0 6, Kallevig 4-7 3-3 12, Harper 5-8 1-2 11, Lucero 3-7 0-0 8, Sicar 2-13 0-0 4, Hermsen 0-2 0-0 0, Frimml 0-1 0-0 0, Santana 2-8 0-0 4, Bode 1-2 2-4 4, Strickland 2-8 0-0 6, Capesius 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 22-65 6-9 55.

MCC (1-7) — Eitel 1-10 0-0 3, Berg 3-15 0-0 7, Rodriguez Sanchez 8-13 0-0 16, Dorta 1-10 0-2 2, Morbidoni 3-10 0-0 7, Rogers 1-3 0-0 3, Rosenberger 0-3 0-0 0, McQueen 0-0 0-0 0, Castan 1-7 0-0 2. TOTALS 18-71 0-2 40.

MOUNT MERCY 18 11 14 12 — 55

MCC 14 11 4 11 — 40

3-Point Goals–Mount Mercy 5-20 (Lucero 2-4, Strickland 2-5, Kallevig 1-1, Sicar 0-1, Frimml 0-1, Hermsen 0-2, Comried 0-3, Santana 0-3), MCC 4-29 (Rogers 1-3, Morbidoni 1-4, Eitel 1-8, Berg 1-9, Rosenberger 0-1, Castan 0-1, Dorta 0-3). Rebounds–Mount Mercy 50 (Sicar 14), MCC 33 (Rodriguez Sanchez 11). Total Fouls–Mount Mercy 7, MCC 16. Fouled Out–none.

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