The North Central Missouri College basketball teams suffered a pair of losses in Kansas City on Wednesday night, with the Penn Valley Scouts sweeping the Region 16 openers between the rivals at the A. Fred Pohlman Fieldhouse.

The Lady Pirates were beaten by Penn Valley by a final score of 65-59, with sophomore center Janairrika Bland leading the Lady Scouts with 24 points and sophomore guard Mercedes Preston adding 20. The win improves Penn Valley to 7-6 on the season, and 1-0 in Region XVI play. The Lady Pirates, now 6-10 overall, and 0-1 in Region XVI play, picked up a game-high 20 points from sophomore center Mysti Williams, 13 from sophomore forward Amanda Rodenberg, and 10 points from freshman forward Samone Redditt.

The Pirate men were down by nine points at the half at Penn Valley, but taken out of the contest early in the second half, with the Scouts scoring 12 of the first 14 points of the second half and leading by double figures the rest of the way in a 91-64 win over North Central. Kareem Martin came off the bench to lead the Scouts with 20 points, while Derrick Williams added 14 points, and John Brown, Erin Jones, and Brian Smith all with 10. North Central had 14 points from Marshon Norfleet, 11 from Skyler Harris, and 10 points from Tyler Peterson.

Harris was injured in a late-second half fall underneath the basket, spinning in mid-air before slamming back-first onto the hardwood. Harris was taken to a local hospital with a back injury. Coach Steve Richman, in a postgame conversation with Tom Johnson, said he is hopeful that the injury is a 'bad muscle bruise' for Harris, and 'no worse than that'. Taking the proper precautions, Harris was taken from the floor by stretcher at Penn Valley Community College.

The Lady Pirates and Pirates are next in action on Saturday, January 12th, with the women at 2:00 and the men at 4:00 at John Wood Community College of Quincy, Illinois. Wednesday night's games were broadcast on Hot Country Z 101.7 and www.kgozfm.com. The next BROADCAST games for NCMC will be at the Ketcham Community Center in Trenton on Saturday, January 19th, hosting the St. Louis Archers in a 2:00 and 4:00 doubleheader.