Saturday afternoon, it was that strong defensive play, especially in the last five minutes of the game, to lift the Cougars to a 51-37 win over Air Force Prep in the final day of the Lady Cougar Holiday Classic for the team’s ninth straight win.
“We had to play strong defensively in the second half because we had to change the pace of the game,” WNCC coach Dave Harnish said. “We weren’t doing much offensively and defensively we did stay in the game in the first half. We tried to change the tempo of the game, which I thought helped in the second half and try to create some turnovers and easy buckets because we weren’t shooting the ball well from the perimeter. Eventually it worked. We got some lay ups and finally built the lead there at the end.”
In other action in the tournament, Colby Community College out-shot Eastern Wyoming College 11-9 from the 3-point arc for an 84-67 win. The Lancers will have one more game left before break when they host Lamar Community College Monday at 6 p.m.
WNCC’s win, however, was not the way Harnish wanted to send his team into the holiday break. Still, the Cougars are 13-3 on the season and that is a positive for this year’s team.
“Today is a disappointment of finishing off the first semester playing at home and not playing with a lot of intensity. For some reason this team doesn’t play every night. They pick and choose games and we can’t get them to stay focused and play night in and night out and solid every night.”
Saturday’s contest was nothing to right home about offensively for both teams. WNCC shot 32 percent from the field and 11 percent from beyond the arc. Air Force Prep was a touch better, shooting 34 percent from the field and 15 percent from the arc.
The difference in the game was a defensive spurt with six minutes to go that allowed WNCC go on a 16-2 run to get the win.
During the run, Shaquilah Davis led the charge with eight points and three steals. But, it wasn’t just Davis that turned up the heat defensively. Alison Cheney delivered a nice pass to Chelsea Lyles for an old-fashioned 3-point play to put WNCC up 41-35.
Lyles finished off the scoring by delivering back-to-back assists to Davis and Tawny Drexler for the win.
Lyles led the team with 13 points and seven rebounds. She also had three assists and two steals, while shooting 4 of 5 from the charity stripe. Davis also finished with 10 points on the night – eight in the last six minutes. Davis also had three steals on the night.
Jenna Colwell also had a nice night early, scoring eight points. In fact, it was Colwell’s bucket with about 12 minutes to play that gave WNCC the lead for good in the second have at 30-28.
While the Cougar offense struggled, the EWC offense was hitting shots. The Lancers finished the night shooting 36 percent from the field, but they connected on nine 3-pointers. Skye Smith led the charge with 20 points, including three 3-pointers. Jaqi Bell also connected on three 3-pointers to finish with 16 points.
Colby, though, was just a tad sharper offensively, shooting 43 percent from the field and tallying 11 3-pointers. Most of the Trojans damage happened midway in the first half when they opened up a tight game to lead 47-33 at intermission.
“It basically was that their offense was hitting threes and when they weren’t hitting threes, they were dumping off the ball to the inside with the advantage they had on some of our guards,” EWC coach Tom Andersen said. “They [Colby] played well. They shot the ball really well, but I think our kids played a lot harder then they did the other night. We had a good effort, but we just game up short.”
Andersen said that first-half spurt was definitely the key stretch in the game.
“Early in the first half when they got the lead and stretched it out a bit, we made a few mistakes and they took advantage of it,” he said. “The second half was a pretty good battle back and forth. We would make a little run at them and then they would make a little run and get it back up to 15. Then we would get it back down and then they would get it back up. I liked the effort our kids put out. We obviously have to take care of a few mistakes, but we are getting better.”
EWC (3-9) 33 34 -- 67
Colby CC 47 37 – 84
EASTERN WYOMING
Kera Bretney 4, Cecily Zarate 4, Stacie Folker 9, Jessica Martinez 3, Candace Mitchell 4, Sheila Reece 4, Nicole Moody 3, Skye Smith 20, Jaqi Bell 16.
COLBY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Molly Phelan 6, Lucia Puchelova 2, Jazmine Murray 9, Katie Spresser 5, Jessi Hilliard 2, Lauren Fortin 7, Nikki Welsh 17, Sandra Sormaz 15, Whitney Archer 17, Samantha Ciani 4.
Air Force Prep 19 18 – 37
WNCC (13-3) 19 32 – 51
AIR FORCE PREP
Claire Brown 4, Jamela Satterfield 5, Jackie First 10, Kira Gonzalez 6, Tiffany Mckinney 6, Kati Islam 4, Fallynne Henderson 2.
WESTERN NEBRASKA CC
Cheri Palmer 3, Dana Iverson 4, Emma Beddome 2, SeLina Ysac 2, Shaquilah Davis 10, Alison Cheney 6, Tawny Drexler 3, Chelsea Lyles 13.
No comments:
Post a Comment