Rock Valley College's women's basketball team falls in NJCAA D-II Tournament

JOPLIN, Mo. — All good things apparently do come to an end as Rock Valley College’s 34-game winning streak came to an abrupt close with an 80-70 loss in the NJCAA Division II National Basketball Tournament.

The No. 3-seeded Golden Eagles (34-1) fell to No. 6 Mesa Community College (Ariz.) on Wednesday night. The Lady T-Birds play in the semifinals on Friday.

RVC will play in the consolation bracket against Iowa Western at 1 p.m. Friday.

The Golden Eagles, coming off a 78-54 victory over No. 14 Mid Michigan that gave them a program record 34 wins, couldn’t match MCC’s early firepower. They committed six turnovers in the first five minutes of the game and trailed 17-8 after one quarter.

MCC led 39-28 at halftime and 59-46 heading to the fourth quarter. The Golden Eagles outscored MCC 24-21 in the fourth, but it wasn’t near enough.

While RVC converted 21-of-22 free throws, the accuracy didn’t extend to field goals. The Golden Eagles were just 21-of-68 for 30.9 percent. MCC converted 47.1 percent from the field.

RVC was led by Maya Mitchell with 13 points. Mia Moore added 11. The local trio of Bre’Nazjah Davis (Beloit Memorial), Carly LaMay (Hononegah) and Elli Teubert (Clinton) combined for only eight points. Davis was 4-for-4 at the line.

In their win over Mid Michigan that put them in the Elite Eight, RVC got 20 points from Maya Mitchell, 17 from Davis and 14 from Jasmyn Hale. LaMay had two points and four assists and Teubert had five points.