MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Another first-quarter blunder proved to hinder any chances the Milwaukee Area Technical College women's basketball team had of securing an upset win when it hosted Triton College Tuesday evening.

Despite taking the early 5-4 lead, the Stormers quickly found themselves on the wrong end of a 19-4 run to close out the quarter. The sudden turn of events was in large part to Triton's defense opting to switch to a full-court press for the final 5:03 remaining in the quarter. During this time, the Trojans were able to force six turnovers, including three straight, all of which helped them jump out to a 14-point lead after one quarter of play.

Already trailing by double-digits, the Stormers allowed the Trojans to slowly extend their lead one quarter at a time en route to claiming a decisive 84-44 road win.

"There were opportunities for us to beat the press with one-on-one's because they weren't trapping or at least they weren't in a trapping-press…but even in the attempt to advance the basketball, they were throwing the wrong pass and that's where the turnovers came," MATC women's head basketball coach Arom Murrell said. "It's frustrating, but then again it isn't. It's kind of been the same story all year. So, unfortunately, it's a repeat performance and the result is the same."

The Stormers were able to attack Triton's defense and regularly get open looks, but they weren't able to capitalize on their opportunities. For the entirety of the game, MATC shot 23.2 percent (13-of-56) from the field and 31.3 percent from deep (5-of-16). Combine those low percentages with the fact that the Stormers surrendered 30 points off their turnovers and 20 second-chance points, and there was no glimpse of hope for a potential comeback.

"Triton was coming off a loss and so I know that they probably were looking at this game like, okay, we can get back on our feet, but we didn't help ourselves either," Murrell said. "We had a relatively decent shooting first half, I think we shot above 30 percent. However, we gave up too many second chance shots and they scored off our turnovers."

Many of those second-chance opportunities for the Trojans came from the inside presence of their sophomore center, Jordyn Coleman, who recorded a monster double-double with 14 points and 19 boards, eight of which were offensive rebounds.

Most of the Stormers' offensive production came from the dynamic duo of sophomore Alexis Ayers and freshman Arlinda Roundtree, who combined for 25 of the team's 44 points.

STAT BOOK
Ayers paced the Stormers with 13 points, five assists, one steal and one rebound. Roundtree finished with 12 points, two rebounds, two steals and one assist. Freshman Chloey Bynum contributed 11 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. Freshman Makayla Carney chipped in a team-high 10 rebounds.

UP NEXT
MATC (7-15) will travel to College of DuPage at 5 p.m. Thursday.