Jamestown Community College’s Hannah Hicks prepares to take a shot against Niagara County CC during Wednesday’s NJCAA Region 3 game at the Physical Education Complex. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

Turnovers have been a problem all season for the Jamestown Community College women’s basketball team.

At least for a half, they were again Wednesday night.

Niagara County CC scored 23 points off 14 first-half turnovers by the Jayhawks and never looked back en route to a 71-53 NJCAA Region 3 Division II victory.

“We’ve been doing it all year. We emphasize it every single day in practice: take care of the basketball. I’m not sure what it is. We’ll continue to drill and improve on that,” Jamestown CC head coach Dave Turnbull said. “The thing is, if we limit our turnovers, we’re a pretty good basketball team. The pieces are there, we just do not take care of the ball. … I keep telling these kids, we’re a team that’s 8-2 if we take care of the ball.”

Ashley Tucker led the Thunderwolves with 18 points while Alita Carey-Santangelo added 11 and Faith Alessandra had 10.

D’Auzhanay Harden had perhaps her best game of the season for the Jayhawks with 25 points, six rebounds and four assists while Hannah Hicks added 17 points and 23 rebounds, but the rest of the team combined for just 11 points.

“That was the best I’ve ever seen her play. … She had a clean game. She took care of the ball. She can score it, she can pass it. She’s a special player,” Turnbull said of Harden, adding about Hicks: “We have to get the ball into Hannah more. She has to get more touches. She’s started to get more touches the last few games. … That’s where our strength lies. She’s a tough matchup for any team that we play. We have to get her the ball where she likes it.”

A layup from Harden made it a 10-7 game with 3:46 left in the first quarter, but Niagara County CC responded with a 9-0 run — two of the baskets coming off Jamestown CC turnovers — to lead 19-7 before Harden made another layup with 17 seconds left in the first quarter.

“They have heard me say, ‘a bad shot is better than a bad pass, because we have a chance to get a rebound,'” Turnbull said. “We have a lot of freshmen that I’m asking for minutes and they’re taking a little more time to acclimate to the college game. I’m hoping during the second semester we’re a little bit better taking care of the ball. … We’ll see.”

The Jayhawks cut the Thunderwolves’ 10-point lead down to six early in the second quarter, and a layup from Harden made it 25-17 with 5:36 left in the first half, but Niagara County CC then went on another 10-0 run that included 3-pointers from Tucker and Jenna Slader to make it an 18-point game with 3:28 left in the second quarter. A 6-0 Jamestown CC run to close the first half made it 37-26 at halftime.

Harden made a jumper with 4:28 left in the third quarter to make it a seven-point game, but that’s as close as the Jayhawks got in the second half.

“We have to get more contributions from some other players. We’re relying on a couple of players. We’re not going to get to where we want to get to unless I can go to at least an eight-person rotation,” Turnbull said. “If a couple of players who have played pretty well in spots this year, played average, I think we would’ve been in the game more than we were.”

For the game, Niagara County CC’s bench outscored Jamestown CC’s 20-0. The Jayhawks were without Lauren Alfa (Mayville/Chautauqua Lake), Jill Kindberg (Jamestown/Jamestown) and Anna Jones (Ravenna, Ohio/Ravenna) due to injuries.

“Alfa is a great defender and can shoot it. Anna Jones started really playing some minutes for us the last two or three games because she’s a pitbull defensively. We certainly miss those two,” Turnbull said. “Jill Kindberg has a hip issue. She’s a really good shooter. It hurt our rotation a lot tonight.”

Jamestown CC’s scheduled game at Villa Maria on Saturday has been canceled, so the Jayhawks will not return to action until another Region 3 home game next Wednesday against Monroe CC.

“I like this team. I think we can make a run, but we’ve yet to have even four people play well at the same time,” Turnbull said. “I’ve got at least eight kids who are really capable of making considerable contributions. … We can’t even get four people to play well at the same time in the same game.”

NIAGARA COUNTY CC (71)

Johnson 2-11 2-4 7, Ballo 4-17 0-0 9, Carey-Santangelo 5-12 1-2 11, Slader 2-13 1-2 6, Tucker 8-13 1-2 18, Alessandra 4-8 2-2 10, McGhee 1-1 0-0 2, Delisle 2-4 0-0 6, Ignatova 0-5 2-2 2, Rehrauer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-84 9-14 71.

JAMESTOWN CC (53)

Harden 9-19 7-8 25, Hicks 5-18 7-14 17, Stevens 2-11 1-4 5, Kok 2-8 0-0 4, Lundmark 1-6 0-0 2, Dawson 0-0 0-0 0, Palacio 0-1 0-0 0, Kelly 0-4 0-0 0, Nelson 0-0 0-0 0, Mathebula 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-67 15-26 53.

Niagara County CC 19 18 10 24 — 71

Jamestown CC 9 17 11 16 — 53

3-point goals–Niagara County CC 6-31 (Johnson 1-6, Ballo 1-2, Carey-Santangelo 0-3, Slader 1-9, Tucker 1-3, Alessandra 0-2, Delisle 2-3, Ignatova 0-3), Jamestown CC 0-11 (Harden 0-2, Stevens 0-1, Kok 0-5, Lundmark 0-1, Palacio 0-1, Kelly 0-1). Total Rebounds–Niagara County CC 56 (Carey-Santangelo 15), Jamestown CC 53 (Hicks 23). Assists–Niagara County CC 20 (Ballo 4), Jamestown CC 9 (Harden 9). Total Fouls–Niagara County CC 18, Jamestown CC 15.