By DONN ADAMSON\Daily Journal Sports Editor

Published: Thursday, January 12, 2006
Updated: Thursday, January 12, 2006 11:13 AM CST

HILLSBORO - The Mineral Area College Lady Cardinals have had a great year. The only problem is that it was in 2005. MAC finished the year at 10-2 and ranked 16th in the nation. Since January 1, they are 0-3 and nowhere to be seen in the rankings.

The Lady Cardinals had a chance to redeem themselves Wednesday night on their trip to Jefferson College to play the 21st-ranked Lady Vikings, but instead the Lady Cardinals were left at the starting block as Jeffco raced off to an 86-50 win.

The race started with Jeffco scoring six points causing MAC coach Lana LaBruyere to call time to get her troops settled. The time-out was futile as the Lady Vikings went on to take a 14-0 lead before Erica Anderson made MAC's first basket from 15 feet out. The Lady Cardinals had missed their first seven shots.

Fran Henderson scored Mineral Area's second basket on their next trip down the court. The Lady Vikings were able to work the ball inside to get the easy lay-up, giving Jeffco a 61 shooting percentage in the first half as they went up 23-4 with 11:12 left in the first half.

Dionn Jackson entered the game fired up. Jackson scored seven points and had two rebounds when she left the game two minutes later making the score 26-11, and causing Jeffco coach Gary Koch to call time.

The Lady Cardinals got their game together for the rest of the half, closing to within 12 points. MAC's defense created several Jeffco turnovers, and on offense the Lady Cardinals were 12-17 after their first seven shots. The Lady Vikings scored the last three points of the half to make it 47-32 at the break.

Whatever the Lady Cardinals had learned in the second 10 minutes of the first half, they soon forgot. Jeffco ignited their horses and ran away with things in the first minutes of the second half, scoring basket after basket on transition.

The Lady Cardinals also had some transition play in the first minutes of he second half, but each time it ended with failure as the ball was either shoved into the bottom of the rim or passed out of bounds or a traveling violation was called. MAC's failure to score helped the Lady Vikings to a 13-2 run to start the half. Jeffco stretched their lead out to 27 points with still 14 minutes left to play.

MAC's easiest basket came by way of Jeffco's announcer. The announcer, who sounded like a yapping Chihuahua dog when announcing the Lady Vikings player's name each time they scored but using a bullfrog voice to announce the Lady Cardinals scoring, made a false call of time-out as Mineral Area was inbounding the ball under their own basket.

Coach Koch had yelled out time, so the announcer announced it, but the referee had already handed the ball to the Lady Cardinals inbounder, making it in play, and therefore could not call time. At the announcer's call the Jeffco players all headed for the bench. MAC alertly inbounded the ball, but missed the shot, and Henderson rebounded it for the putback before the Lady Vikings could get back on defense.

The easy basket did not have too much effect as the Lady Cardinals would make only eight of 27 shots in the half, ending the game with 39 percent shooting from the floor. Jackson led the team in scoring with 11 points.

The big key to Jeffco's win came on the boards where they outrebounded the Lady Cardinals 33-19, and had 14 offensive rebounds which led to 20 points on putbacks. Mineral Area had seven offensive rebounds leading to nine points. Henderson and Mayra Rios led MAC in rebounding with four each.

The Lady Cardinals, 10-5, will have a week to rethink their strategy against the 15-3 Lady Vikings. Jeffco will play at Mineral Area for the Lady Cardinals' next game on Wednesday.

Mineral Area 32 18 - 50

Jefferson 47 39 - 86

Mineral Area - Jackson 11, Rios 9, Henderson 8, E Anderson 5, Washington 5, Whitiker 4, Sublett 2, Hollins 2, Golphin 2, Rozenfeld 2.

Jefferson - Haegele 15, Cornett 15, McCauley 13, Mukosiej 12, Beemer 11, Trumblee 8, Zaloga 6, Cheeks 2, Skardzinska 2, Ochoa 2.

3-Pointers: Beemer 3, Haegele, Washington.