Cottey Comets take lumps on the road at Penn Valley

Nevada Daily Mail

The Cottey Comets dropped their second straight since returning to the court following a month-long winter break, losing 72-40 against Penn Valley Community College Tuesday.

Playing in Kansas City on Penn Valley's home floor, the Comets continued to struggle offensively. Cottey had only 21 points in the first half, turning the ball over 16 times before the break.

Our achilles' heel is the inability to score," Cottey coach Dave Ketterman said. "We missed several easy shots and had a couple of unforced errors.

"I thought we should have been right there with them in the first half. We still haven't found a go-to player."

Ketterman said it was a combination of the Comets struggling and an athletic Penn Valley backcourt that led to the low production.

"They were very strong at the guard position," he said. "They were very athletic and they applied a lot of full-court pressure."

Ketterman likes his team's effort defensively in the first half. Cottey held Penn Valley to 33 points before the intermission.

"The first half I thought we really contained them very well," Ketterman said. "Our goal was to try and hold them to 30 points in the first half."

In the second half Penn Valley started getting into more of an offensive rhythm and Cottey continued to have trouble scoring, leading to the 32-point margin of victory.

Danyca Singleton led Cottey with eight points. Four players were second on the team with six points each.

Penn Valley had three players in double figures. Tiffany Major had 16 points to lead all scorers, while Jackeisha Davis scored 13 and Antoinette Holliday had 10.

"They have three players who are exceptionally talented players," Ketterman said referring to the three high scorers.

Cottey fell to 4-11 this season with the loss. The Comets look to get their first win of 2005 when they travel to St. Louis this weekend for three games against all the region schools in that area.

Cottey plays Forest Park on Friday, Meremac on Saturday and Florrisant Valley on Sunday.

Cottey is home again Tuesday when they host a very good North Central Missouri College team.