Taking on the undefeated, top team in the nation, the Neosho County Panthers women lost to the No. 1 Johnson County Cavaliers, 93-53, on Wednesday night in KJCCC action.
“It’s been a while since I haven’t seen composure,” Neosho County head coach J.J. Davis said. “Give all the credit to Johnson County. They’re really good. They’re the No. 1 team in the country. They jumped on us early and we got shook. We battled back in the second quarter. But our first group didn’t respond in the second half.”
Johnson County led wire-to-wire, taking a 29-4 lead through the first quarter.
“They do what we do better,” Davis said. “They just kept getting layups. Our whole week was about transition. But we didn’t get them ready.”
Anonda Ford led the Cavaliers with 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting while also pulling down eight rebounds.
“She can guard it, shoot it and rebound,” Davis said. “That’s one of the best players in the league we’ve seen so far. She was tough. She got to her spots and finished.”
Laynie Winfrey led Neosho County with 10 points. Chloe Parker paced the Panthers with 10 rebounds — nobody else had more than five for Neosho County.
“We talked about that after the game,” Davis said. “A 5-foot-4 guard outrebounded our team. We’ve got some players that find excuses when tough situations happen. That’s new right now.”
The Panthers shot 19% from the field while the Cavaliers shot 40%.
“Nobody will believe me, but our girls are making 200 shots a day in practice,” Davis said. “We were just nervous. They read the press clippings and were deer in the headlights.”
Neosho County also had a week-and-a-half off because of the snow storm, letting rust creep in.
“We had a month off for Christmas break and then we played two games,” Davis said. “Then we had another 12 days off. It felt like spring break.”
Johnson County improved to 23-0 overall and 5-0 in KJCCC play. Neosho County dipped to 12-8 and 2-1, respectively.
Up next
Neosho County faces Highland on Saturday and Allen on Monday, both on the road.
“We’ve been beaten like this before,” Davis said. “So we’ll respond. We’ll change some things and get back to it.”
