The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team turned back a scrappy Fort Carson Army Base squad to earn an 86-44 win on Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace in Scottsbluff.
While not many style points were awarded in the contest that proved rugged from the start, the Cougars managed to run its season record to 6-1 with the win.
“We played well enough to win,” WNCC coach Dave Harnish said. “We certainly turned the ball over too many times and I don’t think we executed very well offensively. But our defense was as solid as it’s been since the start of the season, which I was happy about.”
WNCC limited Fort Carson to 26.4 percent shooting from the floor in the game.
The Cougars, who have now won four in a row after suffering their only loss of the season in overtime against Colorado Northwestern back on Nov. 10, never trailed following the opening tip. WNCC led 47-22 at halftime before extending its advantage to over the 30-point mark with eight minutes to play in the second half.
WNCC sophomore Kyra Peterson led all scorers in the contest. She poured in 19 points with a trio of 3-pointers. Peterson was joined in double figures by Jessica Aratani and Leona Garrett. Aratani, a freshman from Morrill, netted 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting from the field. Garrett added 11 points and shot 7 of 8 at the free-throw line.
Two other Cougars just missed reaching the double-figure scoring column. Lisa Durden finished with nine points and Kelsey Doddridge added eight.
Harnish said he was pleased with his team’s offensive performance when the Cougars managed to run their offense, which is something he wants to see more often.
“When we run our offense, we certainly can be very good,” Harnish said. “But we struggled to get into our sets offensively. They [Fort Carson] did a good job of denying the wing on us. We have to create better habits offensively so we can execute no matter what the defense is taking away from us or what the score is.”
As a team, the Cougars shot 45.5 percent from the field. WNCC also finished 7 of 16 from behind the 3-point line led by Peterson. The Cougars shot 19 of 31 at the free-throw line.
WNCC held a slight 42-41 edge in rebounding. Garrett paced the Cougars on the glass with eight boards. Aratani and Idil Ozbayrak each tracked down six rebounds, while ChaCha Ofoegbu had five.
Jasmine Shaffer, Peterson and Doddridge all collected four steals each for WNCC.
Samantha Sanders dished out a team-high five assists for the Cougars from her point-guard position, while Peterson and Doddridge each handed out four helpers.
Angela Goodman led Fort Carson in scoring with 10 points. Latrica Perryman pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
WNCC will return to action on Thursday and Friday when it hosts the Thanksgiving Classic. The Cougars will play Colorado Northwestern on Thursday at 7 p.m. before taking on Oglala Lakota on Friday at 5 p.m.
Harnish said he hopes to see continued improvement as his team prepares for conference play next semester.
“These are preseason games. It’s nice to get wins, but the important thing is that we keep getting better for conference play,” Harnish said. “We’re still trying to learn what each player does best and what our best combinations are to put out on the floor. We’re just trying to use these games to get better as a team and to make each player better individually.”
Fort Carson 22 22 — 44
WNCC (6-1) 47 39 — 86
FORT CARSON
Adrian William 6, Latrica Perryman 5, Angela Goodman 10, Sarah Clark 4, Dee Bowens 4, Chris Brennan 7, Kenyatta Bell 2, Jakie Kershaw 2, Kenya Howard 4.
WNCC
Samantha Sanders 6, Jasmine Shaffer 4, Leona Garrett 11, Lisa Durden 9, Kyra Peterson 19, ChaCha Ofoegbu 2, Idil Ozbayrak 5, Kelsey Dodridge 8, Jessica Aratani 15, Ajsa Zdovc 7.
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