Jaguars go on third-quarter run to keep Trail Blazers from putting pieces of puzzle together

QUINCY — The missing pieces caught up to the John Wood Community College women’s basketball team against Danville Area Community College on Saturday.

With three players injured, the Trail Blazers struggled to meet their halftime goals and saw a two-point deficit balloon to double figures as the Jaguars went on a 19-4 run to close the third quarter that propelled them to a 75-64 Mid-West Athletic Conference victory at JWCC’s Student Activity Center.

“At halftime, we had four goals — contain (Jaguars forwafd Tangee Gagau) because she was the one who was hurting us a bit in the first half, play aggressive defense, get defensive rebounds, and have good shot selection, be patient on the offensive end,” JWCC coach Ali Schwagmeyer-Belger said.

In Schwagmeyer-Belger’s eyes, the Trail Blazers only accomplished two of those goals.

The Jaguars only outrebounded the Trail Blazers 27-26 and Schwagmeyer-Belger was pleased with quality of shots her team got, but Gagau scored 16 of her 26 points in the second half and the Trail Blazers’ defensive intensity was not always to Schwagmeyer-Belger’s liking.

“We did a really good job at the defensive rebounding in the second half, and we did a really good job with good shot selection and being patient on the offensive end,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said. “We let (Gagau) score too much in the second half. Defensively, we played aggressively half of the second half and not aggressively the other half. That right there is easily 10 points. We took care of two of them. Next time, we have to try to take care of at least three of the four.”

When Blair Eftink tied the game at 38 on a 3-pointer with 6:50 left in the third quarter, she said the Trail Blazers felt rejuvenated.

“It gave us a lot of momentum,” Eftink said.

But after the Jaguars (12-3, 1-0 MWAC) snatched the momentum back with their 15-point run immediately after that triple, the Trail Blazers never got within single digits in the fourth quarter.

“Every great team is going to go on runs, but narrowing down their run is important,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said. “If we can just narrow their 19-4 run down to 10-4, then that’s a ballgame.”

Eftink had a career-high 29 points and made six of her 13 3-point attempts, the most triples she has hit in 17 games as a Trail Blazer.

“I hit a few in the beginning, so I just decided to let it fly whenever I had the chance,” Eftink said. “I took the right shots though. I didn’t want to force anything.”

Eftink had gone just 2 of 20 from beyond the arc in her previous three games dating back to Dec. 6 against Triton College.

“I haven’t been shooting how I would like the last few games, so it felt to find that groove today,” Eftink said. “I’ve just been taking the time over the break that we had to just get back to the roots of it, get a good feel for it.”

Fellow sophomore guard Grace Deters had 17 points and went 5 of 13 from 3-point range. She also had four steals and three assists.

“When I’m giving (Eftink) the ball, she’s making her threes,” Deters said. “She was on tonight, and so was I. We just feed off of each other there, and we play really well together.”

The injuries that have riddled the Trail Blazers (5-9, 0-1) prompted Schwagmeyer-Belger to deploy just seven players on Saturday and never take Deters or Eftink out of the game.

“With short numbers, we don’t want to get ourselves so far down to where we have build ourselves back up so far and lose all of our gas,” Deters said.

JWCC played without freshman Bryleigh Fox, who was averaging 20.5 points per game before missing the last seven, freshman Olivia Lawson, who averages 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, and sophomore Taylor Kilpatrick, who is averaging 4.5 rebounds per game and has missed six consecutive games.

Eftink believes that a full-strength Trail Blazers squad could make some serious noise.

“We’re just hoping everyone can get healthy and get back because I think we have a lot of talent that could surprise people if we do get everyone back,” Eftink said.

Schwagmeyer-Belger gave a similar sentiment.

“I just want everyone to know what warriors our girls are,” Schwagmeyer-Belger said. “We’re playing with seven players, and every game has been competitive this season except for like two of them, and we’re progressing on everything. Rebounding was 27-26 and turnovers were our 16 to their 20, and those were the two big things we worked on over break. That was very encouraging coming out of the break.”