Thais Pinto paced the Cougar women with 20 points and eight rebounds, but what was more impressive was the way the team excelled defensively. The Cougars forced 24 Hastings College turnovers and held the Broncos to 27 percent shooting.
"I thought to hold them to 35 points for the game was a good accomplishment," WNCC coach Dave Harnish said. "We played pretty solid all night long and the intensity level was there for 40 minutes. We still had too many fouls in trying to reach or in situation where we shouldn't foul them, but we are getting there."
All 15 Cougar players saw action and at this time of the season, especially with 11 freshmen, Harnish said that is a good thing to build depth on the team, especially since they hit the road for a tournament in Colby, Kan., next weekend.
"This team needs a lot of minutes," he said. "We have 11 freshman on the team and they need minutes on the floor. It will be a learning experience and I thought we did better today [then Friday]. That is what it is all about in taking each game one game at a time and try to get better. Hopefully we will play well in Colby."
WNCC led from start to finish against Hastings College junior varsity, taking a 7-0 lead early before Hastings got on the scoreboard with two free throws from Kayli Rageth. WNCC kept executing well taking a 17-5 lead.
Hastings fought back, slicing the lead to four points, 21-17 on a 3-pointer by Rageth and a bucket by Morrill's Michelle Jacobsen with 4:21 to play in the opening half. The Cougars stepped up the defense, scoring the next 11 points to take a 32-17 lead into intermission.
WNCC continued excelling on all cylinders in the second half. After an opening bucket by Hastings, the Cougars went on a 10-0 run ro lead 44-17 before a Rageth free throw stopped the run. Still, WNCC was too much for the Hastings College in collecting the win.
Harnish said the first two games is something they needed. WNCC opened up Friday night by topping Little Big Horn College.
"We were able to play a lot of kids in these last two games," Harnish said. "This team is mainly freshmen and we are trying to find out if they can do [play college basketball] and what the kids can do on the floor. We also want to see who does well off the bench. It is a learning time for me as well as the kids right know."
WNCC had two players in double figures, led by Pinto's 20 points. Carolina Alves also chipped in 11 points, while Kyra Peterson finished with seven.
Hastings was led by Rageth's 13 points, including two 3-pointers.
Hastings JV 17 18 -- 35
WNCC (2-0) 32 34 -- 66
HASTINGS COLLEGE
Hillary Knake 4, Erin Vanderpool 3, Evanee Pearcey 1, Michelle Jacobsen 2, Kayla Rageth 13, Linda Alexander 8, Karly Lindroth-Yates 1, Amber Rasmussen 2, McKenna tenBensel 2.
WNCC
Samantha Sanders 4, Ashley Soucie 3, Shelby Campbell 5, DaNae Quijas 2, Brittany Macey 3, Kyra Peterson 7, ChaCha Ofoegbu 5, Darachia Johnson 2, Leona Garrett 4, Thais Pinto 20, Caolina Alves 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment