KCKCC shuts season down for Greyhounds women

Joe Kuns/Special to the Tribune Fort Scott Community College's Malori Gales battles her way through some Kansas City Kansas Community College defenders during a match-up earlier in the season. The FSCC women ended their season Saturday by losing to KCKCC 64-58.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Third-seeded Kansas City Kansas outscored Fort Scott Community College's women 37-23 in the second half here Saturday afternoon and brought the Greyhounds' season to an end with a 64-58 victory in the first round of the Region VI Division II post-season basketball tournament.

Sixth-seeded Fort Scott finished the season 9-22 with losses in 11 of its last 12 games. The Blue Devils (24-7), ranked No. 20 in the NJCAA Division II poll, go on to face No. 4 Highland (28-2) in one semifinal game Tuesday night at Highland. Fourth-seeded Hesston (14-17) got by Brown Mackie, 86-85, at Hesston Saturday afternoon and will travel to top seed Johnson County (29-1) at Overland Park Tuesday night.

Tuesday's winners meet for the Region VI Division II title at 1 p.m. Saturday at Wichita State University's Koch Arena.

Emily Feldman scored a season high 20 points for the Greyhounds in Saturday's game and sophomore Malori Gales concluded her playing days at FSCC with 16 points. Rashaun Casey led KCK with 18 points followed by Cassidy Harbert with 17 and Janai Mitchell with 12.

Kansas City made 33 percent of its field-goal attempts, hitting on 19 of 57 shots, while making 27 of 37 free throws. Fort Scott shot 27 percent for the game on 12 of 45 and made 26 of 34 free throws.

The Blue Devils outrebounded the Greyhounds, 42-40. Gales and Carlie Wilhelmi each grabbed 7 rebounds for Fort Scott.

Greyhound men to face Kansas City tonight.

Kansas City's men, the sixth seed in the Region VI Division II tournament after failing to win any of its 10 regional seeding games in the regular season, upset third-seeded Johnson County at Overland Park Saturday, 69-57, and will face second-seeded Fort Scott at 7 p.m. tonight in Arnold Arena.

Fort Scott (12-16) will be hosting its first home playoff game since 1967 and will be facing a Blue Devil team that's just 7-24 on the season, having lost 11 straight games prior to Saturday's upset.

FSCC has asked fans to come to Arnold Arena dressed in white tonight to create a "White Out."

If Fort Scott wins, the Greyhounds will play for the Region VI Division II championship Saturday at 3 p.m. in Park City. They would face the winner of tonight's game between fourth-seeded Highland (16-15) and top seed Brown Mackie (19-11).

Highland defeated Hesston at home in Saturday's other first-round game by a score of 78-54.