King, Caron Goudreau pace Gulf Coast State into national title game with 80-51 win over New Mexico JC
LUBBOCK, Texas – Gulf Coast State head coach Roonie Scovel’s biggest concern going into Friday’s national tournament semifinal against New Mexico Junior College was finding a way to keep the Lady Thunderbirds off the boards.
The Lady Commodores did just that, and a whole lot more.
Audrey-Ann Caron Goudreau scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Lady Commodores dominated in just about every fashion from start to finish. The result was an 80-51 victory over the Lady Thunderbirds in the semifinals of the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship at the Rip Griffin Center.
“I thought we looked like Gulf Coast tonight from the get-go,” Scovel said. “Our transition looked good, our defense looked good. About the only negative thing I could say would be our foul trouble … but our subs stepped up when we had to have them. We’re in the national championship and I don’t know what else to say. We get to play for the title (Saturday).”
Kristina King added 20 points and 10 boards for Gulf Coast (30-1), which will go for its fourth national title since 2003 when it meets either Shelton State or Trinity Valley for the championship on Saturday at 7 p.m. CDT.
Gulf Coast jumped on NMJC (34-3) early and never let up, building a double-digit lead by the end of the first period that grew to 20 by the end of the third quarter.
“I thought we played well in every phase of the game,” Scovel said. “The key (defensively) was our point guard doubled down on the post and squeezed them to where they just didn’t own us on the past. I was worried about their physicality the first two games. I thought we took them out of their execution early on.”
The Lady Thunderbirds shot just 25 percent (16 of 64) for the game and were outrebounded 42-37. It also hurt that the Lady Commodores had a good shooting night, hitting 50.9 percent (29 of 57) from the field including 11 of 22 from 3-point range. The 6-foot-3 Caron Goudreau accounted for a season-high seven of those.
“I give it all to my coach, (assistant coach Grover) Hicks,” Caron Goudreau said. “It’s because of him that I’m a great shooter and I’m really grateful for that.”
Nycolle Smith led the Lady Thunderbirds with 14 points and was the only player from NMJC in double figures. The next closest was eight points apiece from Shaniya Mitchell and Ashley Perez.
“Gulf Coast played great,” New Mexico Junior College head coach Drew Sanders said. “Our kids I think got caught up on the emotion and we played really, really tight. You can’t play that way. You could see we didn’t have the same cohesiveness we’ve had and part of that as because of them. I’m not going to take away from how great a team they are.”
Gulf Coast’s defense smothered the Lady Thunderbirds from the opening tip. NMJC opened the game missing its first five shots and committing five turnovers in the first five minutes, and it didn’t get much better the rest of the half.
The Lady Thunderbirds shot just 18.5 percent (5 of 27) in the first half and were 0 for 10 from 3-point range. But that was just the tip of the iceberg as the Lady Commodores also won the rebounding battle (23-20) and forced 12 NMJC turnovers.
Gulf Coast wasn’t a whole lot better from the floor early in the game but finished the first half shooting 37.9 percent (11 of 29) and was 5 of 12 from beyond the arc.
The Lady Commodores took control of the game late in the first quarter, finishing the period on a 7-0 run for a 14-4 lead. Gulf Coast then repeated the feat late in the second quarter, taking a 33-14 lead thanks to a 10-1 run and finishing the first half up 33-16.
Smith led NMJC with seven first-half points. Caron Goudreau, who had two of Gulf Coast’s five 3-pointers, led the Lady Commodores with eight points while Paschal had seven.