MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Anytime a sports organization has a long layoff in between contests, coaches and personnel can be wary of getting off to a slow start when they finally resume action, especially when playing against premiere competition.

This was the mindset Milwaukee Area Technical College women's head basketball coach Arom Murrell was hoping his team could avoid when it hosted Olive-Harvey on Saturday after having last played on Dec. 18 of 2024.

Unfortunately for Murrell's and his Stormers, they quickly fell behind 15-5 before allowing it to snowball all the way into a decisive 90-68 defeat at home.

"I want to say that we were prepared, but I think the lack of competition since it's been a month since we played a little bit of rust played a part," MATC women's head basketball coach Arom Murrell said. "But we didn't do ourselves any favors with our lack of execution to start the game. I think we started the game with a few turnovers immediately and we just couldn't get ourselves in gear. Before you knew it, it snowballed."

Falling behind by double-digit less than five minutes into the opening quarter was only the beginning. MATC quickly found themselves on the wrong end 15-5 midway through the opening quarter thanks to multiple turnovers and a hot-shooting stretch by Panthers' guard Nakia Bardney. Bardney scored 10 of the Panthers' first 15 points on a perfect 4-for-4 mark. She routinely made her presence felt inside the paint to the tune of finishing the evening shooting 14-for-20 from the field and 2-for-4 from deep to help total a game-high 34 points.

"Bardney is Olive-Harvey's leading scorer and she's very active," Murrell said. "She got loose and we made it a point in our scouting report to keep her out of the paint, but she was getting up and down the floor. The turnovers or them getting rebounds and breaking out, Bardney had a great early start."

The poor start for the Stormers carried over into the second frame. Trailing 28-15 through one quarter of play, MATC went out and shot just 16 percent (3-of-18) with five turnovers in the second quarter. It left them to be outscored 29-9 over the last 10 minutes before taking a 57-24 halftime deficit.

Coming back from halftime MATC did its best to limit any further damage. The Stormers' defense managed to hold Olive-Harvey to 36.8 percent shooting throughout the second half, which helped MATC outscore its opponent 44-34 over the last two quarters.

The 22-point loss had plenty to do with the lack of interior defense. The Stormers surrendered 56 points in the paint while also allowing 13 points off second chances.

"We had no defense in the paint tonight," said. "Olive-Harvey does a great job at rebounding the basketball, but today they also dominated the paint. Our post players were stuck in mud. They were reactive instead of being proactive"

With 13 games left before the NJCAA Region 4 Tournament kicks off on Feb. 27, Murrell is hopeful to see his youthful squad that's made up of four freshmen and a pair of sophomores continue to grow in all phases. "We've been struggling with youth and immaturity and accountability for a bulk of the year," Murrell said. "We are a very young group and it shows its head at inopportune moments. I'm always going to try and encourage our group to be the best version of themselves, but at the end of the day it comes down to what they put in in terms of effort and put their minds to go get it done."

STAT BOOK
Sophomore Alexis Ayers paced the Stormers with 20 points, five steals, four rebounds, and two assists. Freshman Arlinda Roundtree added 18 points, four rebounds, three steals and one assist. Freshman Makayla Carney notched a double-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and four steals. Chloey Bynum chipped in eight points.

UP NEXT
MATC (6-11) will travel to Joliet Junior College at 5 p.m. on Jan. 23