DACC women making progress – Danville Commercial News

DANVILLE Progress this season for the Danville Area Community College women's basketball program cannot be measured in total wins and losses.

First-year coach Miranda Payne took over a program in July that not only lost its coach, as Matt Vavro took the job at Lincoln, but all of the incoming recruits also decided to attend different schools.

The Lady Jaguars basically had only three returning players in the fold for this season.

"I was just trying to get a team together,'' said Payne. "We brought in seven new players before the year started and we've added two more during the Christmas break. Right now, we have 11 healthy and eligible players.''

That alone shows a great deal of progress.

On Wednesday night, the Jaguars also showed a great deal of improvement on the floor against the 11th-rated Parkland Cobras.

While DACC suffered a 77-49 loss in the Mid-West Athletic Conference contest at the Mary Miller Gymnasium, it was the play in the first and fourth quarters that showed Payne things are moving in the right direction.

"This was the best start of the game that we've had all season,'' said Payne, as Parkland's Ryan Dooley had to hit a running one-hander in the final seconds of the first quarter to tie the game at 17-all.

"I thought we played really well in those first 10 minutes,'' Payne added. "To do it against Parkland shows that we can play with these teams. It's something that we can gain momentum from and build off of for the rest of our season.''

The Cobras (17-4 overall, 4-0 in the Mid-West Athletic Conference) basically put the game out of reach from the Jaguars in the middle two quarters.

Parkland finished the first half on a 13-1 run to take a 40-24 halftime lead and the Cobras had extended that advantage to 26 points (59-33) at the end of the third quarter.

"Right now, when things start to run back for us, we sit back and we don't push through it,'' Payne said. "But, I thought we finished it on a good note. So, when you consider the good start in the first quarter, all we need to do is get those middle two quarters figured out.''

Sophomore BreLanair Cox, one of the three returners for DACC, scored 10 of her team-high 18 points in the first quarter for the Jaguars. The 5-foot-10 forward from East St. Louis also pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

DACC (2-14 overall, 0-4 in the M-WAC) didn't have another player in double figures. Shawnacee Bowman was next with eight points, followed by Allison Gill and Kansas Williams with seven each.

"As a community college team, you are getting new players every two years,'' Payne said. "So, it's like you are rebuilding every year. But, this beginning was tough and I think it's gotten a lot better.''

Payne said she had very simple goals for this year.

"The main thing I wanted from these girls was for them to work hard, work as a team and improve each day,'' she said. "I'm seeing that progress.''

Kerstyan Lowery was the leading scorer for Parkland with 18 points, while Laynne Buzan finished with 11 to go along with four assists and seven rebounds.

Up next for DACC is a trip to East Peoria to play the Illinois Central Cougars at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

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DACC women making progress - Danville Commercial News