By Nathan Deen
Published on October 24, 2007
PJC Women’s Basketball Coach Chanda Rigby said the Lady Pirates suffered from “first game jitters” in their 70-57 road victory over Andrew College (Ga.) Thursday night.
“We were sporadic,” said Rigby.
Those “first game jitters” may have been the result of two key injuries. All-Panhandle point guard Kristian Diggs was unable to play due to a foot injury that has troubled her for the past couple of weeks and freshman guard/forward Kenyata Gill was also unable to play because of an ankle injury. The coaching staff is not sure when these two players will be available.
Diggs was replaced by freshman point guard Sierra Highgate. Rigby said Highgate performed well in her college debut but it would have been nice if Diggs had been able to start.
Despite PJC’s 13 point margin of victory, the game was fairly close throughout. Rigby said that PJC had a tough time pulling away from Andrew College. A good shooting team, Andrew College was able to keep within 15 points throughout the game. With less than two minutes to go, they made a late run to pull within eight points, however time proved to be their biggest enemy.
Rigby’s new pressure defensive scheme worked well Thursday night, holding Andrew College under 60 points. Offensively, PJC shot 53% from the field. Rigby said that her post players contributed a great deal offensively but “did a very poor job of rebounding.”
Freshman shooting guard Channa Willis led PJC with 16 points. Sophomore Center Latoya Thomas had 13 pts.
This was the first of a five game road stretch for PJC before they open at home in the PJC Lady Pirate Classic against this same Andrew College team on Nov. 16. PJC will play at Mississippi Delta Community College on Monday, Nov. 5 at 1:00 p.m.