The Cougar women shot 26 percent from the field, including going 4 of 19 in the second half in suffering a 60-33 defeat to the Hawks. The win puts the Hawks in the driver’s seat in hosting the Region IX tournament in March.
The WNCC men played much better, earning a 77-70 overtime win against Northeast. The Cougar men shot 46 percent from the field in the win as three players finished in double figures, led by Francisco Cruz’s 19 points.
WNCC coach Brian Joyce was pleased with how his team executed, especially down the stretch.
“Our guys really hung in there,” Joyce said. “We didn’t shot particularly well from the 3-point line. They never lost their composure when they got behind late. We got some key stops. We just worked our way through the game and put ourselves in a position in the end.”
And, the way the team won against a scrappy Northeast team that beat Iowa Western Community College a few weeks ago, made Joyce proud of his team.
“This was a very good win. It was a sub-region game and they just beat Iowa Western, who is traditionally a very good team in the country, where they had Iowa Western down by 25 at half,” he said. “For us to come in here and get a road win like that, I am very proud of our guys.”
WNCC trailed by nine points midway through the first half, 26-15, only to battle back to knot things at 33-33 at intermission.
In the second half, the Hawks held a 53-45 lead at one time, only to watch the Cougars battle back. With seven minutes to play, WNCC’s Daniel Smith brought the team back to 57-54. Freshman Larry Brown followed with five points, including a big 3-pointer to tie the score at 59-59.
Northeast came back with a bucket, before Francisco Cruz tied hit a shot to tie the game once again at 61-16. Scott Bamforth then hit three free throws to put WNCC up 64-61 with a minute to play before a 3-pointer by Northeast tied the game at 64-64 with 30 seconds to play, forcing overtime.
In the extra period, WNCC scored the first five points, four of which from Brown, to go up 69-64. Cruz added back-to-back buckets to put the Cougars up 73-68 with a minute to play for the win.
“I think we just sustained our effort throughout the game and kept our composure,” Joyce said. “When we got the lead in overtime, we never let up and, in fact, extended it. The key was hanging in there.”
The Cougars placed three players in double figures. Cruz finished with 19 points, while grabbing eight rebounds. Bamforth finished with 15 points, while going 8 of 13 from the free throw line, followed by Brown with 11 points and eight rebounds.
WNCC also out-rebounded the Hawks 45-34 and also received 21 points from the bench compared to just seven for the Hawks. The bench scoring impressed Joyce as John Bright came off the bench to scsore eight points and grab eight rebounds. Tarell Clark also had nine points and six rebounds off the bench.
The Cougar men will go for their 17th win of the season Wednesday night when they travel to Sterling, Colo., to face Northeastern Junior College. Joyce said they need to keep playing like thay have this semester, and that includes minimizing turnovers, to come away with a victory Wednesday.
“We need to do the same thing that we have been doing the whole year,” Joyce said. “We will have to continue to play good defense, take good shots on offense and take care of the ball. We only had 12 turnovers tonight and that was our Archilies heal the first semester. This semester we did a better job of taking care of the ball and getting the right people the ball.”
The women weren’t as fortunate in their game. WNCC held a 9-6 lead early, but after that, the wheels started to fall off. Northeast went up 19-10 and then led 34-19 after scoring at the halftime buzzer.
WNCC never could muster any sort of offense in the second half. SeLina Ysac scored the team’s first field goal of the second half. The Cougars then managed just three field goals after that – all from Bayard’s Amber Kistler, who led the team in scoring with 11 points.
The Cougars’ 14 second half points is among one of the lowest second half offensive performances. Still, it was four points short of the record of 10 points from the 1984-85 Cougar team against Otero Junior College
WNCC assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen didn’t have much to say about the game, except now the team needs to win the rest of their sub-region games. That includes beating Northeast by 28 points when the Hawks come to Cougar Palace on Feb. 20 in order for the Cougars to host the regional tournament.
“The team lacked focus and we did not execute,” Pedersen said. “We didn’t play well as a team tonight.”
One of the big reasons for the loss was turnovers, where the Cougars coughed up the ball 25 times. WNCC did have some positives, including getting 15 points from its bench players.
Both teams, who are stuck in Norfolk for at least an extra night after the bus broke down, will next be in action Wednesday when they travel to Northeastern Junior College. The women’s contest starts at 5:30 p.m. with the men’s game to follow.
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