Kirkwood Womens Basketball

Harris paces No. 1 Kirkwood women

When Deleyah Harris was a freshman in high school, her AAU basketball team played in a boys summer league to test their skills and see how they stacked up.

"We lost every game," she said Wednesday night with a smile.

It paid off, however.

"It made you want to compete a lot more," said Harris. "Everybody always says boys are faster and stronger, so it made you try to show a lot more and try to compete. It helped me out a lot."

That experience against the guys in Omaha made her better and made her tougher, and now she's one of the top players for the No. 1 junior  college team in America.

Harris stuffed the stat sheet Wednesday with 20 points, seven steals, five rebounds and four assists as the top-ranked Kirkwood Eagles strolled to an 84-43 victory over John Wood Community College at  Johnson Hall.

Kirkwood, which climbed into the No. 1 spot in the NJCAA Division II rankings this week, raised its record to a perfect 10-0.

"We all feel really good about it, but like Coach (Kim Muhl) tell us, everybody is out to beat us," said Harris, "so we practice two times as hard now  what we are No. 1."

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Kirkwood women jump to No. 1 in NJCAA

It's only December, but the Kirkwood women's basketball team is already enjoying a terrific season.

Hall of Fame Coach Kim Muhl collected his 800th victory at Kirkwood two weeks ago and now the Eagles have climbed into the No. 1 spot in  the NJCAA Division II national rankings.

The Eagles (9-0) were ranked No. 2 last week, but they changed spots with Pima, Ariz., after Pima fell to 9-2 for the campaign.

Simone Goods leads a balanced attack for Kirkwood at 13.8 points and  7.6 rebounds. Deleyah Harris (9.4 points), Shaneequah Watkins (9.3), Olivia Usher (8.6) and Awal Ajak (8.3) are the next top scorers.

The Eagles are outscoring their opponents by an average of 20.1 points  per game. Their victory margins have been 28, 13, 30, 14, 28, 53, 35, 26 and 36, with none of the games in single digits.

The Kirkwood men's basketball team, which was ranked No. 1 in the  preseason poll as the defending national champion, has dropping  completely out of the Top 20 following an 81-73 loss to Black Hawk College last week for its third setback of the campaign.

Kirkwood hosts John Wood College in a doubleheader Wednesday night at  Johnson Hall. The women's game is scheduled for 5:30 and the men's game is set for 7:30.

No. 2 Eagles roll to 9-0 record

MARSHALLTOWN - Shaneequah Watkins tossed in 20 points Wednesday night  as the second-ranked Kirkwood Eagles rolled to a 77-41 victory at Marshalltown.

Simone Goods collected 13 points and nine rebounds for Kirkwood, which raised its perfect record to 9-0. Deleyah Harris chipped in with 10 points.

Claudia Morente scored 11 points for Marshalltown (4-7). The hosts hit only 12 of 52 shots for 23.1 percent.

Kirkwood posted 77 points despite shooting 4 of 27 on 3-pointers.

KIRKWOOD (77): Harris 5 0-0 10, T.Wilson 0 1-2 1, Watkins 7 4-7 20,  Goods 6 1-1 13, Usher 4 1-1 9, Puok 1 0-2 2, Hedges 0 00 0, Axcell 1  0-0 3, Schmidt 0 2-2 2, Ajak 2 3-4 8, Taylor 0 0-0 0, Voss 2 0-0 4,  Cotton 1 0-0 2, C.Wilson 0 1-2 1, Achenbach 1 0-0 2. Totals 30 13-21 77.

MARSHALLTOWN (41): Araoz 1 0-2 2, Cantu 0 0-0 0, Siliga 0 2-2 2,  Morente 4 2-4 11, Eduardo 1 2-4 5, Kavanh 2 0-0 6, Pothast 0 0-0 0,  Roberts 0 0-0 0, Doby 0 1-2 1, Roth 3 4-7 10, Weston 1 2-2 4. Totals  12 13-23 41.

3-point goals - Kirkwood 4 (Watkins 2, Axcell 1, Ajak 1), Marshalltown  4 (Kavanh 2, Morente 1, Eduardo 1).

Muhl collects 800th victory with Kirkwood women

QUINCY, Ill. - Kim Muhl was inducted into the NJCAA Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 after winning six national titles, but he's still rolling up the victories at Kirkwood Community College.

Muhl collected his 800th victory Wednesday night as the seventh-ranked Eagles bounced John Wood College, 85-59, in Quincy, Ill.

Wood has compiled an 800-174 record in 28 years at Kirkwood with 23 trips to the regional finals, 16 berths in the national tournament and 22 straight 20-win campaigns.

Deleyah Harris led Kirkwood Wednesday night with 20 points, 12 rebounds, three steals, two blocked shots and one assist. Olivia Usher popped in 13 points, Megan Axcell had 11 points and Tay Tay Wilson added 10. Simone Goods had nine rebounds.

Kirkwood raised its perfect record to 8-0. John Wood fell to 1-7.

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