Antonio’s 8th Double-Double Guides NMJC to Quarterfinals

The Thunderbirds defeated the 2023 national runner-up Trinity Valley Cardinals 74-61 Wednesday, March 27 in the NJCAA Women's Basketball Round of 16. The T-Birds now advance to the quarterfinals of the national tournament and will face No. 1 Hutchinson Friday, March 29 at 12 p.m. MDT.

Cacia Antonio was dominant in the wire-to-wire victory scoring 20 points and adding 14 rebounds. The freshman guard recorded her eighth double-double of the season with the performance. Antonio finished with a team-high 38 minutes played Wednesday night. 

"I told her before the game started, 'you have to be special for us to win'", NMJC head coach Austin Mefford said. "I mean she understands when she needs to go score to an extent. She's so good in transition and changing speeds that I don't know how you keep her in front of you and how you keep her from getting to the basket and Trinity didn't have an answer for it either today."

Freshman forward Pania Davis scored a quiet 20 points despite missing nearly all of the second quarter after picking up two fouls within 15 seconds of each other. 

"I didn't think she played very well last night offensively and ended up with 20," Mefford said. "But you know, it's cutting out the fouls away from the basket. As the maturity and the experience comes, she has to learn to cut those out in order to keep herself on the floor. She's going to foul here and there blocking the shot. P's got to learn to cut out the fouls that don't affect the game."

Sophomore Filipa Calisto has played an important role on this NMJC squad as the only returner from last year's team. The George Washington signee scored 13 points Wednesday and is dynamic on both ends of the floor.

"Filipa is our best defender.  She takes that role every game of I've got to stop their best player. If it's a wing, or guard, she's guarding them, and she's done a phenomenal job," Mefford said. "On the flip side, she can get to the basket and score, she can hit some outside shots. When she is taking good shots, she's really hard to guard."

"I don't know if anybody has a better three combination than Filipa, Cacia, and Pania that can do a lot of different things in a lot of different ways. We just have to keep them on the floor."

The T-Birds began the game in front with a 10-3 lead over the Cardinals. Pania Davis and Cacia Antonio combined for the first 10 points. An Antonio jumper with 1:32 to go in the first quarter gave NMJC an eight-point advantage, 20-12. Trinity Valley woke up in the final 1:30 and closed on a 5-0 run to bring the game within one possession, 20-17, at the end of the quarter.

The Thunderbirds were having a difficult time pulling away in the second quarter. The T-Birds led by single digits for most of the second until freshman guard Nuria Estrade caught lightning on a bottle. 

The Spaniard hit her first three of the game with 2:32 to go in the half to make it a 35-24 lead. The next possession Estrade drilled another 3-pointer to extend the Thunderbirds lead to 12 points, 38-26. 

The freshman guard's third time down the floor she knocked down a triple in transition that put NMJC ahead by 15 points, 41-26. The shot from the left wing had the bench in a frenzy with 1:10 left. NMJC entered half with a 43-28 lead. 

"Nuria is a very streaky shooter, and she showed that," Mefford said. "When she's hitting them, she can hit them in bunches. Those shots created the separation we needed to pull ahead. Trinity wouldn't go away and then when she hit three straight it gave us a little breathing room."

In the third quarter, NMJC had the largest lead of the game at 21 points, 55-34, following a Filipa Calisto jumper with 5:37 left. The Cardinals scored nine straight points, which brought them within striking distance at 55-43 with just over a minute to play. NMJC slowed the run in the final minute and took a 58-45 lead into the final quarter.

The T-Birds held the Cardinals to 30% from the field in the fourth quarter and did not fold on defense.

The Thunderbirds maintained a double-digit lead the entirety of the quarter and completed the wire-to-wire win over Trinity Valley 74-61.

NMJC finished with five players in double figures. Nuria Estrade finished with 10 points in the 13-point win over the Cardinals. Amyah Sutton recorded 11 points and was the only player off the bench to score.

The T-Birds shot 30-for-69 (43.5%) from the field, 5-of-18 (27.8%) from 3-point territory and 9-of-14 (64.3%) from the line. The Thunderbirds held the Cardinals to 34.2% from the field.

NMJC is now 2-2 at the national tournament under head coach Austin Mefford and 12-9 all-time at the championship.  

The game was not a perfect performance for the T-Birds, but Coach Mefford liked what he saw from his team in their first game of the national tournament.

"The first half, we did really well. We were able to run the things we wanted, run them through, and get good looks to score," Mefford said. "As the game went on, we were sloppier in the second half. The whole game got sloppy. We have to execute well coming up against Hutch because they're very sound. We have to have that execution we had in the first half to have a chance to win."

The defense proved to be the difference in the matchup as Trinity Valley struggled from the field shooting 18.2% from three and 34.2% from the field.

"In Trinity Valley's six losses this year, they have struggled to shoot the three. In their 26 wins, they've shot the three well as a whole. We had to get out and guard and not let them have free looks and did a good job at it. We kept saying that at timeouts and saying that at halftime that if we'll keep our tempo, they're tired. The longer it goes, the more their legs go, the harder it's going to be to hit those outside shots."

The Thunderbirds now have a matchup against the undefeated No. 1 seed Hutchinson Blue Dragons in the quarterfinals on Friday. 

"Hutchinson is much better than what everybody saw against Cochise," Mefford said. "John (Ontjes) is one of the best coaches in the country. They're probably the most efficient scoring team in the country. They don't have a lot of size, they're all 5-11 and below, but they're going to play five out and they're going to play hard."

The matchup against Hutch is similar to what NMJC exploited against Trinity Valley. Take advantage of Pania's height and continue to dictate the pace of the game.

"I think one thing we have to our advantage is our athleticism," Mefford said. "We have to be able to disrupt things defensively. Offensively, we've got to be able to do what we did against Trinity. Get to the basket, get post touches, hit outside shots, and if we can get a good combination, I like our chances."

"The one thing about Hutchinson I don't think they're that deep and if we can speed the tempo up kind of like we did against Trinity Valley and hopefully as the game trickles on their legs get tired. We'll see, we're going to have to play well but they're very beatable at the same time."

No. 8 NMJC 27-6 (13-1) will face No. 1 Hutchinson 34-0 (24-0) in the quarterfinal of the NJCAA Women's Basketball Championship Friday, March 29 at 12 p.m. MDT in Casper, Wyoming at the Ford Wyoming Center. 

The game will be televised on ESPN+ and a $10 subscription will be required to catch the games live.  

To keep up to date with tournament scores and action visit Tournament Central.