Winless Spoon River provides perfect tonic for home-court woes for John Wood women

February 15, 2024 | By Don Crim, Senior Columnist

John Wood Community College's Amber Durst sets a screen on a Spoon River College player to clear a path for teammate Grace Deters to dribble to the basket during the fourth quarter of Wednesday night's women's college basketball game at the Student Activity Center in Quincy. | David Adam

QUINCY — Winning at home has been a struggle for the John Wood Community College women’s basketball team this season.

Until Wednesday night.

The Trail Blazers scored the opening 12 points and 23 of the first 25 to coast to an 87-31 victory over winless Spoon River College in a Mid-West Athletic Conference game at the Student Activity Center.

JWCC entered the game having lost its last four games at home and seven of 10 overall. However, it led by as many as 22 points in the first quarter and by as many as 24 in the second before limiting Spoon River to just 10 points in the second half in posting its third-highest point total of the season.

The Trail Blazers improved to 12-11 overall and 5-4 in the MWAC.

“Our vibes at home have been off all season,” JWCC coach Lauren Bogle said. “We needed something to get us going.”

With only six players available, the Snappers (0-19, 0-9 in the MWAC) proved to be the perfect tonic.

The Trail Blazers sank four 3-pointers and turned multiple miscues into layups in the early going to go up 23-2 as Bogle substituted liberally. They led 29-10 at the end of the first quarter, and despite cooling off in the second period, were up 42-21 at the half.

Spoon River managed just three field goals and two free throws in the second half as JWCC steadily pulled away. The Trail Blazers scored 28 points off 16 turnovers by the Snappers and sank 14 of 39 attempts from 3-point range.

Guard Krista Rittenhouse came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points for JWCC. Katey Flynn finished with 21 points, Jada Dupree 17 and reserve Grace Deters 13 for the winners.

The Trail Blazers scored 96 points in a three-overtime victory over Carl Sandburg in early January and 90 against the Culver-Stockton JV to open the season.

JWCC plays its next three games on the road, all against teams it lost to in succession at home last month, beginning with Saturday’s contest against Parkland. The Trail Blazers then close the season with two home games before the start of the Region 24 playoffs.

“I have more confidence in these (upcoming games) even though we’ve lost to those teams before because we’re road warriors and know what it takes to take care of business,” Bogle said, whose team is 8-4 in road or neutral site contests.

“We just have to be ready to compete and put those teams on their toes this time. We’re not worried about the region seedings right now. We’re focused on just how much we’re going to grow to reach our end goal of going to nationals.”