Saturday, November 28, 2009

WNCC women get past Garden City 70-67

Submitted by By Jeremy Woznick, Star-Herald Sports

GARDEN CITY, Kan. - The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team shrugged off a sluggish start to turn back Garden City Community College 70-67 Friday in the Garden City Thanksgiving Classic.

The 10th-ranked Cougars were down 18-4 in the opening minutes of the contest, and trailed 40-36 at the half. However, WNCC used its trademark defense to limit Garden City to just 27 points in the second half.

"We came out pretty slow," WNCC assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said. "We switched our defense up at about the 14-minute mark of the second half and went on a big run."

The Cougars used a 12-0 run to go in front for good. Battling foul trouble, WNCC was forced to use a smaller and quicker lineup that proved to pay off.

"Our big kids were in foul trouble early," Pedersen said. "We ended up running four guards most of the night, which ended up being pretty good for us."

Yuki Morimoto, a 5-foot-10 freshman guard from Tokyo, Japan, paced WNCC in scoring with 24 points. Morimoto knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in the contest.

Two other players scored in double figures for the Cougars. Stormye Everett poured in 17 points and Michelle Glaze added 10. Tiffany Moorer finished with nine points.

Everett, Morimoto and Moorer all pulled down four rebounds to lead WNCC on the glass. Glaze had three steals defensively and Everett tallied a pair of blocks. Amber Kistler led the Cougars with four assists.

For the game, WNCC shot 47 percent from the field. The Cougars were also 8 of 12 from the free-throw line.

The win improved WNCC to 7-1 on the season. The Cougars will be back in action today at 12:30 p.m. against Seward County Community College.

WNCC (7-1) 36 34 - 70
Garden City 40 27 - 67
WNCC
Amber Kistler 4, Stormye Everett 17, Yuki Morimoto 24, Tiffany Moorer 9, Tynetta Turner 2, Michelle Glaze 10, Thais Pinto 4.

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