Lady T-Birds Get Big Win In Opener!

JASON FARMER/NEWS-SUN Ingrid Farina passes the ball to a teammate during the second half of NMJC's season opener Thursday at Caster Activity Center. Farina was one of nine players to score for the Lady Thunderbirds in an 81-54 win over Ranger College.

The New Mexico Junior College women's basketball team opened its season with a dominating win Thursday, as the Lady Thunderbirds destroyed visiting Ranger College, 81-54, during the first day of the Thunderbird Classic.

"They felt good about it," NMJC coach Drew Sanders said of his team opening the season with a victory. "I got onto them a little bit about a few of the mistakes, but it was a really good first win for us." New Mexico Junior College begins its season at 1-0. The Lady Thunderbirds will be back on the court tonight when NMJC hosts San Jacinto College in a 6 p.m. tipoff.

The Lady Thunderbirds jumped out to a big first-quarter lead, outscoring Ranger College 26-11. NMJC pushed its lead to 27 points in the second quarter by outscoring the visiting team, 25-13.

When the third quarter started, NMJC continued to score with ease, as the Lady T-Birds pushed their lead to a game-high 34 points. However, by the end of the third quarter, the Lady T-Birds' lead was back down to 27 points.

"I felt like we played a really, really good first half," Sanders said. "I felt like we lost a little bit in the second half, but that is normal when you have that kind of lead."

Over the course of the second half, New Mexico Junior College and Ranger College ended up trading points in the third and fourth quarters, as each team scored 16 points in the third and 14 in the fourth.

"Part of that was we played different folks," Sanders said. "But part of it was also that we lost our intensity and our focus. We also played a lot of different people as we were trying to save people for the other two games (of the tournament)."

The Lady T-Birds had five players score in double figures, four of whom were in the starting lineup, and one player with a double-double.

Ashley Reid led all scorers with a game-high 15 points. Reid had 12 points over 17 minutes in the first half. She played only five minutes in the second half, scoring three more points. Alexes Bryant had the game's only double-double as she scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds during her 19 minutes on the court. Returning starter Ni'Asia McIntosh also had 14 points. Thamires Andrade finished with 11 points while Danielle Craft scored 12 coming in off the bench.

Sanders was impressed with how well his team shot in the season opener. NMJC made 52 percent of its overall shots and 64 percent from outside the three-point arc. The Lady T-Birds were successful on nine of their 14 attempted treys. Reid led the team with five treys while Craft made four.

"We were surprised that we shot the ball so well from the perimeter tonight," Sanders said. "We knew our post game was going to be really good and then the fact that we shot the three ball so well, that was really good too."