CASPER, Wyo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team tried to make a second half comeback like they did in the first two games of the Region IX tournament. But this time the magic ran out as the Cougars fell 57-46 to Casper College in the semifinals.
The win sends Casper into the title game against Otero Junior College, who was a 51-50 winner over Northeast (Nebraska) Community College in the other semifinal game. The title game is slated for 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The loss ends the Cougars' season at 28-5. Women's basketball coach Dave Harnish said even with the loss, the team had a great year and the players should be proud.
"We won 28 games and it was a great season," Harnish said. "It is always disappointing not to win a regional championship, but we got better this year. We had an Achilles heel in shooting the ball and you have to score."
Shooting was definitely the Cougars' Achilles heel Tuesday night as well as throughout the tournament and season. The Cougars shot just 35 percent from the field against Casper, but were even worse from the free throw line and 3-point arc. WNCC made just 2 of 15 charity shots (13 percent) and 4 of 21 treys (19 percent).
Casper, on the other hand, was sizzling the nets. The Thunderbirds, who finished fourth at the national tournament a year ago, connected on six 3-pointers and shot an astonishing 93 percent (14 of 15) from the throw line.
Even with the cold shooting night, he was pleased with their defensive effort.
"I thought we competed hard tonight and I thought we did a decent job defensively, holding them to 50 points. We did everything we needed to do defensively," he said. "The problem was the same thing of what we didn't do all year and that was shoot the ball. And, we couldn't make free throws. When you go two of 15 from the free throw line, you will not beat anybody. We lost the game from the free throw again and we lost four of our five games that way. Still, we played hard. We were positive and the kids did everything they could defensively. We got some shots but we couldn't get any shots to fall."
WNCC got behind the 8-ball in the first half as the Thunderbirds swarmed to a 10-4 lead and led 28-14 at intermission.
Casper pushed the lead to 32-17 early in the second half before the Cougars caught fire just like they did in the previous two games. WNCC went on a 10-0 run behind clutch shooting from Carolina Alves, Thais Pinto and Tiffany Moorer, cutting the lead to 32-27.
The Thunderbirds, however, came back to push the lead back to 10 points, 45-35 on a Sherece Huddlin 3-pointer.
WNCC wasn't through, cutting the lead to five points, 49-44 on a Lisa Durden 3-pointer. WNCC trailed 51-46 with just over two minutes to play, but the Cougars' magical run ran out in falling to the Thunderbirds.
Harnish thought they had the momentum for a comeback, but said that Casper stopped the momentum with a clutch bucket.
"We did make a comeback. We cut it to five and we had a wide-open three to cut it to even two," he said. "Momentum was on our side. If we would have made our free throws, we could have kept the game close or tied and it would have been a whole different thing. I think the pressure would have gone to them in playing at home."
WNCC had just one player in double figures and that was Pinto with another double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Alves finished with nine points and Darachia Johnson scored seven points.
Huddlin paced Casper with 14 points while Marlianna Louzeiro, Jasmine Belin and Lindsey Fearing all had 10 points.
WNCC losses four sophomores next season -- Shelby Campbell, Tiffany Moorer, Carolina Alves, and Thais Pinto. Harnish said they had a good career.
"We brought back four sophomores and they showed great leadership especially on the floor. I thought all four played hard throughout the year. Their attitude was good, they competed night in and night out. I am sure they are disappointed in the way it ended, but we brought them back because they are good leaders and they certainly did that this year."
WNCC (28-5) 14 32 -- 46
Casper 23-9) 28 29 -- 57
CASPER COLLEGE
Sherece Huddlin 14, Marlianne Louzeiro 10, Rosalie Cutri 8, Jasmine Belin 10, Lindsey Fearing 10.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Samantha Sanders 3, Shelby Campbell 5, Tiffany Moorer 8, Lisa Durden 3, ChaCha Ofoegbu 1, Darachia Johnson 7, Thais Pinto 12, Carolina Alves 9.
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