*This is the first article in a series about The CCBC Essex Women’s Basketball Team and their quest to win the first National Championship in program history.
Tyler Gray
On Feb.18 The Knights played one of their last games (of the regular season) against the #2 ranked team in The Division II Region 20 Conference, Montgomery College of Rockville, Md. CCBC Essex won the game 96- 59. The game took place in Rockville, Maryland at 6pm.
The stands were filled as all you heard were The Knights chanting just as loud as the music they were warming up to.
From pregame warmups, the team entered the game with increased energy as they dominated the first half of the game 43 to 22. In the first quarter The Knights outscored their opponent 23 to 10. Then again, they outscored The Montgomery Raptors 20 to 12 in the second quarter.
After coming out of halftime The Knights then again continued to dominate the court scoring and celebrating as their bench players cheered for the players that were in the game. The Knights outscored the raptors 33 to 17 to end the third quarter making the score 76 to 39. The Raptors tried to make a comeback scoring 20 points however, it was too little too late as the game ended with the CCBC Essex Knights having 96 points to the Montgomery College Raptors 59.
In this big win for CCBC Essex, no Knight was left behind as all the players on the team played and scored. Three of the Knights, Anasia Staton, Faith Blackstone, and Tiffany Hammond, hit double figure scoring.
After the game, Anasia Staton, the leading scorer of the night with 22 points and captain of the team had a few words for her fellow Knights stating her expectation for the team and the rest of the season. She said, “I think we need to wake up. what I mean by that is we can’t win games by messing around like we did in the beginning of the season...Because we are ‘good’…everyone is going to give us their best game. So, we need to continue to work hard nonstop. I feel like because it’s my last year I must leave an impact on the program. I want to make a name not only for myself but for the program and do something that has never been done before here at CCBC Essex which is win a ‘natty’.”(National Championship)
As the month of February comes to an end The CCBC Essex Knights Women’s Basketball Team has an important journey ahead. As the team is racking up win after win their season is coming to its hardest stretch yet as in March, they will start the Division II Region 20 Tournament in hopes of winning a championship to advance to the national NJCAA tournament. Here they will face the highest ranked teams from all around the country in each region for a national title.
Head Coach of the CCBC Essex Women’s Basketball Team Mike Seney said, “Preparation helps me sleep at night and be confident we are preparing every day in practice ...to be as ready as we have been all season.”
The Knights played their last regular season game March 1 against College of Southern Maryland at CCBC Essex where they won 117-43. The CCBC Essex Knights have had a dominant season as they are 12-0 in the conference and are 27-1 overall bringing them to the #2 spot in the nation.
