WNCC women pick up 16th wn of the season

               The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team put three players in double figures and connected on seven 3-pointers to register an emotional 75-73 win over Casper College Tuesday at Cougar Palace.

                Ashley Stevens and Lile Havili paced the Cougars with 14 points followed by Amgela Vigil with 12. The big shot of the game, though, came from Vigil, who drove the paint for an easy bucket with 31 seconds to play for an easy bucket and a 3-point lead.

                Vigil said she couldn’t believe she was that wide open down the paint.

                “I was surprised with how open it was,” she said. “The play was for me to go up and score but I had a little fake pass and it worked out good.”

                The win was huge after the Cougars were down after falling to Lamar on Saturday. This win picked the team up quite a bit.

“This win is good because we got back on our feet,” she said. “We were a little bit down after the Lamar game, but this game got us going again.”

                Overall, though, the Cougars never trailed in the contest and the lead was only tied just three times. Vigil said they played well against a scrappy Casper squad.

                “It is a pretty big win for us,” she said. “We beat them the first time and we knew they were going to come out tough the second time.”

                A big key was the Cougars first half. After a back-and-fourth start with the Cougars holding a slim 12-10 lead. That was when the Cougars kicked it into high gear, going on a 18-7 run that saw them lead 30-17 behind 3-pointers from Laurin Rivera and Ally Vasquez. WNCC led at halftime 43-32.

                Casper outscored WNCC 41-32 in the second half and Vigil said it was a matter that they lost a little focus.

                “We were a little bit off the second half, but we made up for it with our hustle,” Vigil said. “We wanted it more, so we came out with the win.”

                Still, the Cougars never lost the lead. WNCC led 64-55 before Casper came back to tie the game at 64 and then 66. The Cougars then hit clutch free throws, going 6-for-6 for a 72-67 lead. Casper sliced the lead to 72-71 and that was when Vigil found a wide-open lane for an easy bucket with 31-.7 seconds. After that the Cougars defense held tough for the team’s 16^th win of the season.

                WNCC connected on seven 3-pointers, five of which came in the first half. Vasquez and Shalisa Moffit each had two treys on the night, while Rivera, Stevens, and Abi Lujan all had one.

                WNCC also shot 43 percent from the field compared to 36 percent for Casper, and the Cougars were 75 percent from the charity stripe, going 18 of 24.

                WNCC will be back in action Friday when they travel to Eastern Wyoming College for a sub-region contest beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Casper                  32 41 – 73

WNCC                   43 32 – 75

CASPER

Sakayla Davenport 2, Shanda Post 7, Whitney Lott 4, Cheyenne Balster 3, Kassidy Scott 11, Ragen Wilson 2, Kendyl Nunn 29, Elisa Johnson 15.

WNCC

Allyson Vasquez 8, Laurin Rivera 9, Shalisa Moffit 6, Abi Lujan 8, Angela Vigil 12, Ashley Stevens 14, Kaylee Biddell 4, Lile Havili 14.