Archers end skid, collect home win over Jefferson College
Though it wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game Shelly Ethridge has coached in her tenure at St. Louis Community College, but she hardly minded, after her Archers ended a six-game skid with a 58-46 win over Jefferson College.
Freshman guard Shamara Glover led the Archers with 19 points, as STLCC grabbed a slim first-quarter lead and only increased it throughout the evening. Glover, who has taken over the mantle of the team’s leading scorer with Shania Thornton out with an injury, provided 13 first-half points, including a 3-for-5 performance from three-point range.
“We just wanted it, and it all came down to everyone on the team being on the same page,” Glover said. “I always want to fill a role when someone else is down, and we’ve all begun to play together and gel. Every game is a new game, and we just brought the spark we needed tonight.
The first two weeks of the regular season were have been as uncharacteristic a start to a season as Ethridge has experienced with the Archers. Owner of three 20-win seasons and two Region XVI titles in the past five years, Ethridge saw her team sputter to a 1-6 start, complete with a pair of drubbings this past weekend at Arkansas State Mid-South.
“I’m so proud of them for them to go into break like this, with a win in our first conference game over a team as good as Jefferson,” Ethridge said. “We expected that we were going to take our hits early in the season. We’re just so young. But every game, we’re starting to show signs of who is going to be our go-to person, who can defend, who can get a rebound, and we’re starting to figure those things out and build that chemistry.
The Archers will have a week until they will look to rekindle that chemistry, as they will travel to Jefferson College on Dec. 2 in a rare home-and-home set of meetings, with a break in between.
With 19 points and five rebounds, Glover was named our Duffy’s player of the game in Tuesday’s win. Glover connected on all three of the Archers’ three-point field goals, and has scored 19 or more points in a game three times since leading scorer Shania Thornton left the Archers’ Nov. 10 loss to Lindenwood-Belleville with a leg injury.