Historic season ends for the Lady Roadrunners

Lake Charles, La.-The ninth seeded State Fair Community College (SFCC) Lady Roadrunners women's basketball team fell to the eighth-seeded Walters State Community College 73-63 in the second round of the NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship.

SFCC (29-3) led the game at the end of the first quarter 18-15. Walters State outscored SFCC 19-12 in the second quarter to take a 34-30 lead into halftime. Walters State went on a 6-0 run to begin the third quarter and pushed the advantage to 41-30.

Walters State led 56-46 at the end of three quarters.

The Lady Roadrunners fought back to trim the deficit to one point at 58-57 courtesy of a huge three-point shot from freshman guard Chloe Reed of Wentzville, Mo. with less than seven minutes to go in the contest.

Walters State pushed their advantage back to seven points at 64-57 later in the fourth quarter and made the plays to pick up the victory.

Redshirt freshman guard Jonise Barcene of Cocoa, Fla. led the Lady Roadrunners in scoring with 15 points including three of three from beyond the three-point arc. Freshman forward Taylor Wilson of Copperas Cove, Texas contributed 12 points and six rebounds. Sophomore forward Ellie Buscher of St. Louis, Mo. pulled down a team-high 18 rebounds and registered a team-high two blocked shots in the contest. Sophomore guard Sophia Edwin of Killeen, Texas dished out a team-high five assists.

"We got in foul trouble early in the game, that took us out of rhythm," said head coach Nicole Collier. "We continued to battle. We struggled to keep them off of the boards and turnovers were an issue. We cut it to one in the fourth quarter but, couldn't pull away."

SFCC ends the 2025-2026 campaign with 29 wins which ties the program record for wins in a season. The Lady Roadrunners won the Region 16 regular season championship. The sophomore class accumulated a total of 53 victories in two seasons to go along with back-to-back appearances in the NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship.

"It was an amazing season with a great group of girls on and off the floor," said Collier. "Effort and heart are our identity. We had a lot of fun, and our journey was everything we could've asked for besides winning a national championship. This group elevated the standards and etched themselves into the record books forever at State Fair. I am forever grateful to our players, my assistant Kaitlyn Everts, our parents for trusting us with their daughters, our fans, and to our administration for always believing in us."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics