2/4/15 • By The Telegram Staff

NORFOLK -- The Raiders gave a Top 25 team in Division I all it could handle, but came up just short.

The Central Community College women's basketball team fell to National Junior College Athletic Association Division I, No. 23 Northeast Community College 81-74 Wednesday in Norfolk.

"We played pretty strong," Central head coach Mike Kroupa said. "Northeast is an excellent team. We played them hard on their home court. We need to improve on some things. You're never happy with a loss, but we played winnable basketball tonight, that's for sure."

The Raiders were making their shots in the first half, according to Kroupa, and matched the Northeast intensity.

As the first half ended, Central and Northeast were deadlocked at 45-all.

"Our shots were falling," Kroupa said of the first half. "Defensively, we saw some things and made adjustments. We came out firing. We took their best shot and they took ours and we were tied at the half."

But somewhere in the second half, the shots stopped falling for Central.

Northeast even saw a decline in its offense, but the Raiders were outscored 36-29 in the second half.

"The game just slowed down in general," Kroupa said. "Both teams were missing some shots. We played well, but we went through dry streaks in the second half that slowed us down and prevented us from getting a win."

The Raiders shot 36 percent from the field, but Central's starters shot a combined 15-for-51 from the floor.

"It was a combination of good defense and missing a lot of shots that we can normally hit," Kroupa said. "We're a 35 percent 3-point shooting team this year and we just didn't shoot close to that in the second half."

McKenna Rossmeier led the Raiders with 13 points, while Montrese Weller chipped in 12 points, and Adrianna Beck tallied 11 points.

Northeast was led by Megan Trinder's 22 points, Yasmin Miller's 17 points and Ena Viso's 14 points.

The loss moves the Raiders to 12-11 on the season and was their third loss in a row.

"We have a couple games this weekend that if we play alright, we should get the win," Kroupa said. "(Wednesday), even though we took the loss, we played fine."

Central hosts Little Priest Tribal College Saturday, a team the Raiders beat 112-70 in their last meeting back on Jan. 21.

Wednesday at Norfolk

Central (12-11) 45 29 - 74

Northeast 45 36 - 81

* CENTRAL - Makayla Augustine 9, Adrianna Beck 11, Paige Muhammad 7, McKenna Rossmeier 13, Montrese Weller 12, Lana'e Washington-Carson 10, Shananthia Bryant 4, LaShonda Brewer 8.

* NORTHEAST - Yasmin Miller 17, Janea Bunn 5, Brooke Bauer 8, Megan Trinder 22, Ena Viso 14, Jayla Mayes-Jackson 3, Annie Szczepaniak 2, Sydney Koel 10.

* 3-point field goals - Central 6 (Weller 3, Rossmeier 2, Beck 1), Northeast 5 (Miller 3, Bauer 1, Viso 1).