March 21, 2016

Thunderbirds fall in Final 4 to Gulf Coast

New Mexico Junior College

32-3

Gulf Coast State College

30-1

Final	1	2	3	4	T
New Mexico Junior College 32-3	4	12	19	16	51
Gulf Coast State College 30-1	14	19	23	24	80

Game Leaders

New Mexico Junior College

Pts: Nycolle Smith - 14

Reb: Shaniya Mitchell - 9

Ast: Dezirae Hampton - 3

Gulf Coast State College

Pts: Audrey-Ann Caron Goudreau - 23

Reb: 2 Players (#21, #51) - 10

Ast: Amanda Paschal - 6

Team Stats

Game Statistics	New Mexico Junior College	Gulf Coast State College
Field Goals	(16-64)	(29-57)
Field Goal %	25.0%	50.9%
Rebounds	37	42
Assists	6	20
Turnovers	16	17
Pts off Turnovers	13	17
2nd Chance Pts	10	14
Pts in the Paint	24	30
Fastbreak Pts	0	12
Bench Pts	14	17

Full stats

LUBBOCK, Texas –

*Story excerpts courtesy Lubbock Sports

The New Mexico Junior College Women's Basketball team came out tense against tournament No. 1 seed Gulf Coast and ended up playing from behind the entire game and eventaully ran out of gas. The result was an 80-51 victory for Gulf Coast in the semifinals of the NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship at the Rip Griffin Center.

Gulf Coast jumped on NMJC (34-3) early and never let up, building a double-digit lead by the end of the first period that grew to 20 by the end of the third quarter.

The Thunderbirds shot just 25 percent (16 of 64) for the game and were outrebounded 42-37. It also hurt that the Lady Commodores had a good shooting night, hitting 50.9 percent (29 of 57) from the field including 11 of 22 from 3-point range. The 6-foot-3 Caron Goudreau accounted for a season-high seven of those.

Nycolle Smith led the Thunderbirds with 14 points and was the only player from NMJC in double figures. The next closest was eight points apiece from Shaniya Mitchell and Ashley Perez.

"Gulf Coast played great," New Mexico Junior College head coach Drew Sanders said. "Our kids I think got caught up on the emotion and we played really, really tight. You can't play that way. You could see we didn't have the same cohesiveness we've had and part of that as because of them. I'm not going to take away from how great a team they are."

Gulf Coast's defense smothered the Thunderbirds from the opening tip. NMJC opened the game missing its first five shots and committing five turnovers in the first five minutes, and it didn't get much better the rest of the half.

The Thunderbirds shot just 18.5 percent (5 of 27) in the first half and were 0 for 10 from 3-point range. But that was just the tip of the iceberg as the Commodores also won the rebounding battle (23-20) and forced 12 NMJC turnovers.

NMJC will play either Trinity Valley or Shelton State in the quarterfinals of the tournament at 4:30 P.M CDT on Saturday.