Independence Community College Women’s Basketball has started the season 5-0, the program’s best start to a season since 2011.

Indy attained victories over five non-conference opponents, starting with the season opener against NOC-Tonkawa at the FirstOak Bank & Oakes Family Field House. In a thrilling back and forth game, the Pirates prevailed in overtime, 88-87, to kick off the season.

Indy Women’s Basketball defended the Field House twice more, defeating Labette and NOC-Enid, before hitting the road for cross-county rival Coffeyville to compete in the Coffeyville Classic. On opening night, the Pirates surged past NEO in the second half for a hard-fought 79-66 victory. That was followed up with a 79-61 win over Haskell JV the next afternoon.

So far this season, the Pirates’ entire starting line-up is averaging double-figures, led by Merveille Nkoyock (19.8 points per game), Sunishka Kartik (14.2 ppg), Serenity Echols (12.6 ppg), Sabrina Larsson (11.2 ppg), and Kyunna Thomas (11.0 ppg).

Nkoyock is currently the third leading scorer in the Jayhawk Conference. Thomas is currently ranked fifth in the conference in rebounds with 10.5 per game.

The Pirates rank third in the Jayhawk Conference in scoring with 80.6 points per game.

This is the first season at the helm for Head Coach Rob Beckmann – previously the Associate Head Coach for the past three seasons at ICC, which included both a Region VI and a Jayhawk Conference Championship. He is assisted by Head Assistant Coach Kayla Schumaker, who returns for her second season at Independence after being promoted from Assistant Coach last year.