Graves Dishes 8 Assists in 56-Point Win
NMJC women's basketball took care of Wayland Baptist (JV) 98-42 Monday night inside the Caster Activity Center.
The game was not close from the get-go. The Thunderbirds outscored the Flying Queens by 16 points in the first quarter to put NMJC on top 28-12. A Nuria Estrade floater with just under 10 seconds remaining in the half extended the T-Birds lead to 30 at the break, 56-26.
NMJC opened the third quarter with a 12-0 run to push the lead to 42 points with 6:11 left in the third. The Thunderbirds held Wayland to just seven points in the third quarter on their way to a 76-33 advantage.
An unfortunate moment in the game was when star guard Cacia Antonio went down with a rolled ankle late in the third quarter. Antonio was finishing up a layup and landed awkwardly on her teammate Amyah Sutton's foot which caused the injury. Antonio is listed as day-to-day.
The T-Birds took it easy in the fourth quarter giving a lot of minutes to the bench following the Antonio injury. Even so, NMJC scored 13 more points than the Flying Queens in the final quarter with the majority of the bench getting major minutes.
Jada Graves went 2-of-3 from the 3-point land finishing with 12 points and eight assists. Sophomore guard Cacia Antonio posted 12 points and eight assists in a little over 2.5 quarters of play.
Forward Amyah Sutton finished with 10 points and five steals. Freshman Maya Contreras tied her career-high in points with nine. Pania Davis recorded six rebounds while guard Nuria Estrade tallied nine points and four rebounds.
Danielle Smith and Kaycee Steinke both went 2-for-3 from beyond the arc tallying eight points each. Forward Emma Najjuma finished with seven rebounds, six points, and three assists.
The T-Birds shot 37-for-78 (47.4%) from the field, 8-for-22 (36.4%) from the 3-point line, and 16-of-20 (80.0%) from the charity stripe. The Thunderbirds forced 17 turnovers and held the Flying Queens to 28.9% from the field and 11.1% from the three-point land. The Thunderbirds scored 31 points off turnovers to Wayland's zero.
The No. 3 Thunderbirds move to 12-0 and will face Northeastern JC Friday, Dec. 13 at 6 p.m. MST in Hobbs, NM.
