[March 19, 2013] SALINA,
Kan. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team’s bid for
a national title came to a halt as ASA College overcame a 12-point deficit in
capturing a 74-68 win in the NJCAA National Tournament in Salina, Kan., on
Tuesday.
The Cougars,
who finish the season at 20-15, controlled the tempo for much of the second
half but saw ASA’s Shaquita Smith bury three 3-pointers late and finish with a
game-high 30 points to earn a berth into Wednesday’s contest with No. 3 seed
Hutchinson Community College.
Jessica
Aratani, who finished with 12 points and five rebounds, said Smith practically
single-handedly beat the Cougars by herself down the stretch with those
acrobatic 3-pointers.
“We
haven’t seen a player like that all year,” Aratani said. “She was really
athletic and she could hit shots from anywhere. She kept them in the game and
it hurt us there in the end.”
For
the Cougars, they now the game was theirs but couldn’t find an answer for Smith
or the offensive rebounding of 6-foot-3 Tiffany Jones, who finished with 16
rebounds, nine of which were on the offensive end.
“This
season has been amazing. This team is amazing. We love each so much and we were
willing to work hard for each other, sophomore Gritt Ryder said while trying to
hold back the tears. “That is why it is so hard now for the season to be over
because of a game like this where we didn’t play hard and play like we have all
season.
“We
didn’t get humiliated but the thing is that we played a close game but if we
did more things, we would have beat them by a lot.”
Aratani
echoed Ryder that they wanted to get the win not just for themselves, but for
the community back home.
“Definitely we had an amazing
season. I don’t regret anything,” she said. “It is just hard to come down here
and not get a win at nationals because we wanted to get a win for everybody and
for ourselves, but we tried our best and I think it is just tough right now.”
Aratani said this is one of the
contests that they easily could have won, especially how they were playing
early on.
“We were doing the little things
right at the beginning in hitting shots and blocking out with their height advantage,” she said. “Overall
we lost it in the last part of the second half. We kind of fell apart and let
them get those runs at the end and we didn’t have the momentum.”
What makes the loss hard to
swallow is just how close the Cougars were in picking up the win. WNCC led by
12 at 58-46 on a Ryder steal and old-fashioned 3-pointer play with 9:04 to
play. WNCC kept playing strong over the next three minutes, leading 64-55 on
two Mikayla Brower free throws.
After that, though, is when
things went sour as the Avengers outscored the Cougars 19-4 the last five
minutes of the game. And it was ASA’s two big weapons, Smith and Lewis, that
did the damage. Smith hit an NBA 3-pointer with 3 minutes to play to put ASA in
front 66-64.
Ryder came back to tie the game
with two free throws, but when Smith hit a turnaround, jumper 3-pointer that
found the net to put ASA up 70-66, the momentum was taken out of the Cougars’
sails.
The last five minutes of the
game, however, was not an indication of how well the Cougars played at
nationals. ASA held a 20-19 lead in the first half only to watch the Cougars go
on a 20-0 run behind back-to-back 3-pointers by Shalisa Moffit andMaurissa
Ortega. Ortega’s bank shot put WNCC up 29-20. WNCC went up 31-22 after Brower
hit two technical.
ASA came back to slice the lead
to 31-30 before Brower hit four straight free throws to help the Cougars lead
37-33 at halftime.
Early in the second half, WNCC
was playing well as they led 49-39 just seven minutes intot he contest on a
Laurin Rivera driving bucket. Later, Aratani put in a spinning insdie bucket
before Ryder’s steal and bucket.
Ryder said despite the outcome,
they played hard.
“I think we played tough, but our
shot wasn’t falling today,” she said. “Also, it was a big key that their shots
were falling and ours wasn’t. But we still should beat teams when our shots
aren’t falling. We let them get too many offensive rebounds.
Rebounding
was a huge factor in the game. The Avengers out-rebounded WNCC 53-36 as Lewis
had 16 boards and Sashana Bucknor had 13 points. Those offensive rebounds, in
turn, resulted in 21 second-effort points for ASA while WNCC had just two.
Shooting
was pretty equal as WNCC shot 35 percent from the field and 33 percent beyond
the arc. ASA was 35 percent from the field and 31 percent from beyond the arc.
WNCC was lights out from the free throw line, shooting 89 percent (23 of 28).
Brower was a perfect 12 of 12 from the charity stripe. ASA was 18 of 21 from
the free throw.
The
Cougars had four players finish in double figures. Brower led the way with 17
points followed by Ryder with 13 points, and Ashley Stevens and Aratani with 12
points each.
WNCC
loses four sophomores next year in Aratani, Ryder, Kelsey Doddridge, and Idil
Ozbayrak, Ryder and Aratani said they wouldn’t have traded the experiences they
had this season for anything.
“I
want to say thanks for all the support this season,” Ryder said. “This team is
amazing and tanks to Coach Harnish and Coach T and for everybody for putting so
much work into this season.”
Aratani,
who spent two seasons as a starter for the Cougars, said she loves this team.
“I
wouldn’t have asked for anything more. I love this team and we have had a great
year,” she said. “We went out on top of the region and that was fun and
exciting. Getting a trip to nationals was great, too, We wish we could have
went a little further than this but overall I wouldn’t trade anything because I
just love all the players.”
ASA 33
41 – 74
WNCC 37
31 – 68
ASA
Tiffany Jones 16, Sashana Bucknor 9, Shaquita Smith 30,
Erica Juarbe 5, Brianna Mitchell 11, Kelcey Castro 3.
WNCC
Ashley Stevens 12, Jessica Aratani 12, Mikayla Brower 17,
Kelsey Doddridge 2, Gritt Ryder 13, Laurin Rivera 6, Shalisa Moffit 3, Maurissa
Ortega 3.
No comments:
Post a Comment