WNCC women remain unbeaten with win over Williston State

                The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team remained perfect on the season with a complete game performance against Williston State College, topping the Tetons with an 88-46 win in the Thanksgiving Classic Friday at Cougar Palace.

                The Cougars, in capturing their 9^th victory of the season, blistered the nets for 50 percent shooting and all 13 players that suited up scored. It was a win that pleased WNCC coach Dave Harnish.

                “I liked the energy. It is Thanksgiving weekend and a couple years ago, they came down and beat us,” WNCC coach Dave Harnish said. “It was good that we had better energy this week. I even thought we had a good week of practice and got better. That really showed tonight. We came out and through it all together and that is what we did tonight. We were a little sloppy with some reaching and grabbing, but I thought we hit some shots better tonight and I thought the defense was solid throughout the night. I also thought the bench came in and did a better of job of building the lead, keeping us where we need to be.”

                The Cougars and Tetons started the game exchanging buckets. Williston held an early 4-3 lead, but a bucket by Carolina Alves and an old-fashioned 3-point play by ChaCha Ofoegbu put WNCC up 8-4. The Cougars held a slim 14-10 lead before opening up the contest with an 11-0 run that was highlighted by a Samantha Sanders trey.

                WNCC continued excelling on all cylinders in the first half as the Cougars went on another 9-0 run behind a trey by Kyra Peterson and driving bucket by Sanders for a 42-14 on their way to a 46-19 halftime lead.

                The Cougars didn’t miss a beat in the second half, opening the second 20 minutes on a 10-0 run behind five points from Peterson for a 56-19 lead. Williston finally netted its first points on a free throw at the 16:15 minute mark by Dani Sadowsky. The Tetons’ Rachel Mehus added another four points to bring Williston back to 56-24, but back-to-back buckets by Leona Garrett on two separate occasions helped the Cougars to a 72-33 lead and they never looked back.

                WNCC had four players player hit the double figure column, led by Garrett and Alves with 14 points each, followed by Peterson with 12 points, including three 3-pointers, and Sanders with 10. Alves also pulled down 10 rebounds for a double-double.

                Williston State was led by Kyli Locken with 15 points and Rachel Mehus with 12.

                The 19^th ranked Cougars, 9-0, will look to stay unbeaten in the final women’s game of the Thanksgiving Classic Saturday at 5 p.m. against Oglala Lakota College, who fell to Eastern Wyoming College 86-82 in overtime. The other women’s game pits EWC against Williston at 1 p.m.

                Harnish said it is still early for this team, but he is seeing progress.

                “We are still a young team with freshmen and it is still a learning experience,” he said. “We have to learn to play every night and every day. I think this team has done that. For nine games know, I thought we have competed well. We played well today and I wouldn’t expect anything less tomorrow [Saturday]. This team has done a good job of competing, playing defense and rebounding. I think we will continue to do that.”

                In the lone men’s contest on Friday, Williston State came back to stop Indian Hills 63-62 as Blake Nash drained a bucket with 12 seconds to play to give the Tetons the one-point lead. A late missed free throw by Indian Hills sealed the win for Williston.

                Both teams will return to action today. Williston State will take on Eastern Wyoming at 3 p.m. while Indian Hills will face the WNCC men at 7 p.m.

Women’s Game

Williston                             19 27 – 46

WNCC (9-0)                        46 42 – 88

WILLISTON

Domenique Whitmore 2, Rachel Mehus 12, Sam Heier 10, Toni Johnson 3, Kinsi Olson 1, Kyli Locken 15, Shari Hewson 2, Dani Sadowsky 1.

WNCC

Samantha Sanders 10, Ashley Soucie 3, Shelby Campbell 4, DaNae Quijas 4, Brittany Macey 4, Tiffany Moorer 5, Kyra Peterson 12, ChaCha Ofoegbu 7, Jasmine Shaffer 3, Darachia Johnson 4, Leona Garrett 14, Carolina Alves 14, Shelby Jones 4.

Men’s Game

Indian Hills   30 - 32 -- 62
Williston        35 28 -- 63
WILLISTON State
Riley Stuve 3, Dijon Farr 14, Trey Starks 2, Gary Ricks 3, Jereome Jones 16, Latroy Taylor 1, Chad Dillard 10, Stephen Coles 13.
INDIAN HILLS
Thaddeus Perry 4, Derik Hawkey 2, Marc Price 3, Nick Markovich 9, Blake Nash 18, Charles Ward 7, Derek Detrick 12, Terrance Motley 4, Moriba Defreitas 4.