LAMAR, Colo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team started slow, but heated up in the second half to post a 70-45 win over Lamar Community College Friday at Lamar, Colo.
The win pushed the No. 16 Cougars to 16-0 on the season as they look for win number 17 Saturday against Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colo.
Friday's contest saw two Cougars finish with double figure scoring, led by sophomore Tiffany Moorer with 14 points. Kyra Peterson finished with 13 points, including three 3-pointers. Eight other Cougars also finished in the scorebook.
WNCC coach Dave Harnish said his team started slow, keeping a good Lamar squad in the contest.
"It was a very lethargic start for us early and we turned the ball over. I think we had 17 turnovers at halftime," he said. "For some reason we weren't into it mentally. We turned the ball over, missed some layups, and it was a very frustrating first half. The second half was better. We attacked it better with the press. We played more up tempo the second half. I thought the defense was good, not great tonight."
Lamar controlled the first 10 minutes of the game, vaulting to a 13-5 lead and later at 16-10. WNCC came storming back on 3-pointers by Shelby Campbell and Kyra Peterson. Carolina Alves later gave the Cougars their first lead of the game at 17-16.
WNCC held a slim 25-21 lead at intermission.
Harnish said the key between the first and second half was getting some transition baskets from the 4th-best national defense.
"Early in the second half we got some transition baskets and pushed the lead to 12 or 14 points," Harnish said. "Overall, it was just a bad night because we turn it over 25 or 26 times. We struggled making decisions. I think we are the better team, but we made too many mistakes."
The Cougars took control of the contest in the first two minutes of the second half, scoring the first two buckets, including four points from Samantha Sanders and a bucket by Moorer for a 31-21 lead. WNCC pushed the lead to 12 points on several occasions as Peterson drained a couple treys from the corner, the final with about eight minutes to play after Lamar sliced the lead to 49-40.
WNCC put the game away with a 15-2 run to finish the contest.
The Cougars will know face a tough Otero squad that enters the contest with a 12-2 record. The contest also pits two of the top five defensive teams in the nation as Otero comes in with the top defense in the nation, allowing just 46.9 points a game.
"We need a game like Otero. We had kind of a soft schedule in going 16-0, but we really haven't played anyone really good," Harnish said. "We now have Otero on their home court and they will be the best team we have seen all year. This is something we need because right know we are playing to the level of our competition. Hopefully we will play better tomorrow [Saturday] against a better team and we will find out a little bit more of what we are made of."
WNCC (15-0) 25 45 -- 70
Lamar (7-8) 21 24 -- 45
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Samantha Sanders 7, Shelby Campbell 5, Tiffany Moorer 14, Kyra Peterson 13, ChaCha Ofoegbu 2, Darechia Johnson 7, Leona Garrett 6, Thais Pinto 8, Carolina Alves 7, Shelby Jones 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment