Bulldogs Defeat Central in Second Annual Mayor's Cup

Photo by Micah Gilbert
McPherson, Kan. – The McPherson College women's basketball team retained the "Mayor's Cup" defeating their crosstown rival the Central Christian College Tigers 76-65 at the McPherson High School Round House.

Both teams seemed really juiced up at the start, and the game was played at a frenetic pace. The Bulldogs never trailed their counter parts from the south end of town, and actually led by as many as 15 points in the second half before the Tigers made a run to close the gap back town to single digits. In the end, despite over 23 turnovers, and shooting just over 36% for the game, the Bulldogs pushed the lead back over double digits and extended their winning streak over the Tigers to 15 games.

Individually, the Bulldogs had a pair of players finish in double figures led by another monster performance from Brittany Roberts (Jr. Mansfield, Texas) who recorded her fourth double double of the season, scoring 22 points and grabbing 15 boards. She was joined in double figures by Maison Moseley (So. Woodward, Okla.), who had three assists and three steals to go along with 13 points. Danielle Holt (Sr. Glenpool, Okla.) was also a beast on the boards. She grabbed a team high 16 rebounds and was one point shy of a double double.

"I felt like we played a little too amped up in the first half", said Bulldog head coach Josh Nichols, who is now a perfect 2-0 against the neighbors across town. "We missed a lot shots we normally make and I thought we settled in much better in the second half." He lauded the play of several indivduls saying, "Brittany continues to impact the game in a major way. Maison played well tonight taking care of the ball, and Haley and Kyrstin us a big spark of the bench tonight.  I really was impressed with Dani especially early in the game and down the stretch in the 4th quarter. That's what seniors do in big games. We still have some things to work on, but we trending in the right direction."
 
With the win, the Bulldogs move to 4-1 on the season. They have one more non-conference game, a road trip to Madison, South Dakota to take on Dakota State University on Saturday, before opening up KCAC play next week on Wednesday against Bethany College. The Bulldogs are slated to play the DSU Trojans Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
MAC (76) – Roberts (22), Moseley (13), Holt (9), Gillen (7), Branscum (7), Hurst (4), Jarvis (3), Griffin (3), Upchurch (3), Diaz (2), Guillory (2), Ates (1).