WNCC women's basketball makes regional championship final

Submitted By ALEX HELMBRECHT, Star-Herald Sports Reporter
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The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team put themselves in a familiar position thanks to a 75-48 win over Miles City Community College during the semifinal round of the Region IX Women's Basketball Tournament in Casper, Wyo. on Tuesday

With the win, WNCC earns the right to play tourney host Casper today at 6 p.m. to decide the Region IX champ, as well as a spot in the women's national tournament later this month in Salina, Kan. Casper defeated Northeastern Junior College 61-56 in the other semifinal on Tuesday.

Against Miles City, the Cougars' defense was once again stellar as they limited the Pioneers to just 38 total shot attempts, while the Cougars hit 31 of 65.

"I thought we defended well all night long and we used a full-court press all night long that caused a lot of problems for them," WNCC coach Dave Harnish said. "I think they had 25 or 26 turnovers and we came out and made some threes early and we got them out of their zone. So that changed the tempo and we were able to take advantage of that."

WNCC jumped out to a quick 18-8 lead and didn't look back the rest of the game as the Cougars didn't let Miles City get closer than 10 points the rest of the way. At halftime, the Cougars led 48-26.

"We played for 40 minutes and we came out of the game really well. We jumped out on them early and certainly the 20-point lead at halftime helped a bunch," Harnish said. "We just kind of stayed around a 20-25-point lead all night and I'm certainly pleased about the effort."

Four Cougars finished in double figures, led by Tiara Scott's 15 points. She also had five rebounds. Also for WNCC, Chelsea Lyles finished with 13 points and four boards; Kiki Taylor had 10 points, five assists and three steals; and Allison Cheney scored 10 points and added three steals. Both Cheney and Taylor each added two treys.

As a team, the Cougars hit 8 of 21 3-point attempts and they were a perfect 5 of 5 from the free-throw line.

Harnish was pleased to see his team play one of its most complete games during the most crucial point of the season.

"We've had a few games after the first semester where we've played really well, but we've done better here," he said. "We played well during the second half last night and we carried that on [Tuesday]. Playing three games has really helped us with our rhythm and hopefully we can carry that on against Casper."

Casper, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, split a pair of games with WNCC during the regular season. Casper defeated WNCC 58-53 on Jan. 27 to earn the right to host the Region IX tourney, but WNCC bounced back with a 55-51 win over the Thunderbirds on Feb. 10.

Today, Harnish said the Cougars need to push the tempo of the game in order to have success.

"Casper really likes playing a half-court game and the way we played defensively tonight if we can do that [today] we can get into a faster tempo game to our speed and that's going to be key," he said. "

They were able to slow down our other two games and I think they were in the 50s. So we'd like to get the game into the 60s or 70s and that's going to be a key for us. We need to defend well and get steals because they'll lead to fast breaks to get into a quicker game."

WNCC (27-1) 48 27 - 75
Miles City 26 22 - 48

WESTERN NEBRASKA
Kiki Taylor 10, Emma Beddome 7, Tiara Scott 15, Lesley Olson 6, Victoria Martin 4, Alison Cheney 10, Shiraya Soto 6, Aurelie Derenoncourt 4, Chelsea Lyles 13.