Now, after nine games on the road, the No. 18 Cougars will be at home for the first time this season as they set to host the Colorado/Nebraska Showcase beginning Thursday at Cougar Palace.
WNCC, 7-2, will open Thursday Otero Junior College at 7 p.m., while McCook Community College will battle Lamar Community College at 5 p.m. The tournament continues through Saturday.
WNCC sophomore guard Amber Kistler said it feels great to be finally playing in front of the home crowd.
“It feels really good to be playing at home,” the Bayard graduate said. “We are used to playing here, practicing here. We are here all the time and we are excited to be playing in front of our home crowd and show them what we are all about.”
The Cougars feature a young squad this season. Kistler and Stormye Everett are the only sophomores on the team. Still, the Cougars have run to a 7-2 record this season. Kistler said the team learned plenty from their last game, a 62-61 loss to No. 22 Seward County Community College at the Thanksgiving Classic in Garden City, Kan.
“We have been playing pretty well. We get better every game,” she said. “This last game against Seward when we only lost by one, we learned a lot. We learned how to compete and go out there and play hard the whole game. We will take what we learned in that game and apply it to every game we play from now on and we should be good.”
Well the Cougars will receive a test, especially in their opening game against Otero Junior College. The Rattlers enter the contest with an 8-1 record. The Rattlers are averaging 75 points a game and have impressive wins against Central Wyoming, Frank Phillips, Barton County and Eastern Wyoming this season.
Kistler said they just need to play their game and not worry about the other team and they should be alright.
“We go into every game as it is just another game, and we just face it the same way,” she said. “We are going to play our game and hopefully we come out on top.”
If the Cougars are to come away with wins this weekend, they will need to play strong defense. The Cougars are 36th in the nation in defense, allowing 60.11 points a game. WNCC is also scoring at an alarming rate, averaging 73 points a game, which is 44th in the nation.
WNCC has three players averaging over double figures this year. Everett is averaging 12.75 points a game, while 6-foot-7 Thais Pinto is averaging 12.6 points a game. Yuki Morimoto, a 5-10 red-shirt freshman is averaging 10.1 points a game. Kistler is also making an impact this season, averaging 8.3 points a game, while freshman Tiffany Moorer is averaging 7.1 points a game.
After Thursday’s contest, the Cougars will face Lamar Community on Friday at 7 p.m. followed by a 3 p.m. contest Saturday against McCook Community College.
The Cougars will finish the first semester by hosting the Lady Cougar Holiday Classic Dec. 10 when Air Force Prep, Garden City Community College and Colby Community College come to town.
Tournament Schedule
Thursday, Dec. 3
5 p.m. – McCook vs. Lamar, 7 p.m. – WNCC vs. Otero
Friday, Dec. 4
5 p.m. – Otero vs. McCook, 7 p.m. – WNCC vs. Lamar
Saturday, Dec. 5
1 p.m. – Lamar vs. Otero, 3 p.m. – WNCC vs. McCook
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