COLBY, Kan. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team withstood a late Colorado Northwestern rally to drop the Spartans 55-51 in the first day of the Colby Classic in Colby, Kan. The Cougars vaulted to a 27-20 halftime lead. The second half was a different story. WNCC held a 12-point lead midway through the second half before the Spartans came back, taking a one-point lead with three minutes to play. WNCC, behind two clutch buckets by Tiffany Moorer and a 3-pointer by Samantha Sanders, stormed back to get the win.
WNCC coach Dave Harnish said they finally made some shots down the stretch to help the Cougars to their third win of the season.
“We finally were able to make a couple shots in the last three minutes that we weren’t making throughout the game,” he said.
Harnish was pleased with his team’s defensive effort; it was the offensive side they need to get better at. The Cougars also played with 6-foot-7 Thais Pinto, who stayed home nursing an injured leg.
“We held them to 51 points so I think we defended well and we rebounded decently,” he said. “But, we just can’t put the ball in the hole and finish shooting shots.”
WNCC shot just 37 percent from the field and 41 percent from the free throw in the contest.
“We struggled being on the floor offensively,” Harnish said. “We only shot 37 percent for the game which is not good. It just seemed like we missed easy shots inside and can’t make free throws, which allows teams to just hang in there.”
WNCC had a balanced scoring attack, paced by freshman Kyra Peterson with 11 points and three 3-pointers. Also netting near double figures was Moorer with nine points and Shelby Campbell, Carolina Alves, and ChaCha Ofoegbu with eight points each.
The Cougars will face Colby Community College on Friday at 4 p.m. before taking on Hastings College junior varsity on Saturday. Harnish said his team needs to capitalize offensively against a talented Colby squad.
“It is not that we need play a complete game because I think we defend pretty well because we play defense and we rebound; we just shoot ourselves in the foot when we don’t capitalize on lay-ups and easy 3-footers in side,” he said. “We are shooting under 50 percent for the year in free throws. It shouldn’t have been a close game if we would have made free throws and easy shots. We should have won my more.”
WNCC (3-0) 27 28 – 55
Colorado NW 20 31 – 51
WNCC
Samantha Sanders 5, Tiffany Moorer 9, Carolina Alves 8, Kyra Peterson 11, Leona Garrett 6, ChaCha Ofoegbu 8, Shelby Campbell 8.
3-pointers – Sanders 1, Peterson 3.
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