The WNCC women weren't as fortunate against the No. 12 Northeastern Junior College Plainswomen as a Sabelle Diata offensive putback at the buzzer gave the Plainswomen an exciting 52-50 win Wednesday.
Bamforth said it is great to get the win for head coach Brian Joyce, who coached at Northeastern Junior College before coming to WNCC.
"it is a big win knowing Coach Joyce here and it is a big rivalry game," Bamforth said. "knowing last year that they beat us pretty bad at our place [last year]. It was kind of fire. We were ready for this game.
The Cougars led only a couple of times in the opening half only to fall behind 44-40 at intermission. The second half was a battle as Francisco Cruz nailed a 3-pointer with 15:26 to play to give the Cougars the lead at 51-50. From there, both teams teams traded buckets left and right.
WNCC pushed the lead to 64-60 on a Bamforth 3-pointer with 10 minutes to go. Bamforth kept playing well as he drove to the bucket to put the Cougars up 71-67. Moments later, Bamforth and Cruz nailed back-to-back treys to give WNCC a 77-70 lead.
The seven point lead wasn't safe as the Plainsmen fought back, cutting the lead to 79-78 on two free throws by Anthony Harris with 2:20 play. WNCC widened the lead to threee points on a bucket with 1:19 to play.
Harris sliced the lead to a single digit, 81-80 with 29 seconds to play on two free throws. Four seconds later, Bamforth nailed two free throws to put WNCC up three.
That was when the Cougars defense stepped it up another notch, as they pressured the Plainsmen in taking a long-range three with 10 seconds to go. Cruz hailed in the rebound and was fouled. After missing both free throws, the Cougars never let NJC get a good look at the basket for the tying shot.
Bamforth said their defense stepped up b, especially in the clutch.
"We just try to stay discipline and we try to man up on defense. If we get beat, we know there will be help there. That is where trust comes in from coach and practice," he said. "Coach joyce gets on us and tries to bring that anger out of us. When we get in a game, we just play through stuff. . When we get down by a couple of pionts, we just keep fighting through and everyone keeps shooting.
WNCC had three players finish in double figures. After Bamforth's 28, Cruz ppped in 18 points and Sedrick McBounds had 10 points. Chris Hamblin led the team with 10 rebounds. The Cougars were 18 of 33 from the free throw line
The women weren't as fortunate despite battling to the end. Cougar women's coach Dave Harnish said this is a hard one to take, especially how hard the Cougar women fought, overcoming a 33-21 halftime deficit.
"I told them at halftime that I thought they made huge progress from this weekend. Even being down by 12 at halftime, I thought we played hard. We missed some easy shots inside and turned it over 14 times in the first half and we were really killing ourselves," Harnish said. "I think this is a huge game for us to understand how hard to play and to to come down here and have a chance and should have won a game. It is disappointing to lose it, but we can live with this one better over Saturday's loss where we competed as hrd ad we could and it just didn't fall our way."
WNCC's second half performance was something to witness as the Cougar women fought back to tie the came at 36-36 on a Stormye Everett bucket. Before that bucket, though, the Cougars ran off 13-0 run as they held the Plainswomen scoreless for nearly six minutes.
WNCC finally took its first lead of the game on a Janae Willis bucket, 42-41, with 6:50 to play. The lead changed hands a couple times before WNCC retook the lead on two Shaquilah Davis free throws with tw ominutes to play, 49-47.
WNCC kept battling in the final minutes playing their patented defense. NJC tied the game on two free throws by Daita 29.5 seconds to play. WNCC had an opportunity to go ahead, but a Davis shot with 22 seconds to play. After a lose ball that went over to NJC, the Plainswomen had the last shot. Diata missed the initial shot with about two seconds to play, but go the offensive putback to win the game at the buzzer.
"We struggled shooting the ball and that is our biggest problem. That is what happened last week and again tonight," Harnish said. "We are not shooting the ball well so we have to work the ball in side and make strong moves. I thought tonight we counter-acted that in our shooting. We penetrated alittle bit more and got it inside more. We did everything we needed to do in the game. A few missed free throws at the end cost us. It was just some tough breaks at the end that really hurt us."
The Cougar women easily could have given up, especially early when they trailed 15 points on a number of occasions. They didn't and Harnish can live with that.
"Last week we quite fighting and it is a disappointing game to lose but I think this will help us grow up this semester and get back to where we can play. It is encouraging of the way we played tonight and if we continue to that we can be a lot better and be a pretty good team. We just to play that way night in and night out.
Everett paced the women with 16 poitns and five rebounds, followed by Tawny Drexler with 11 points, five rebounds and eight steals. Kistler also had a good game, finishing with seven points.
Both Cougar teams will be back in action Friday when they host Lamar Community College at Cougar Palace. The women tip off at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men's game.
WNCC women (15-6) 21 29 – 50
NJC
NORTHEASTERN COLORADO
Amhy Marin 1, Candace Ewert 2, Kristy Henderson 19, Dawn Wattlwy 6, Sabelle Diata 12, Jessica Priest 12.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 7, SeLina Ysac 4, Shaquilah Davis 4, Storyme Everett 16, Janae Willis 4, Tawny Drexler 11, Caley Fisher 4.
WNCC men (17-4)
NJC
NORTHEASTERN COLORADO
Leon Washington 2, Michael Fraser 19, Will Bell 3, Justin Schneider 4, Dre Calloway 6, Alex Garcia 9, AJ Wilson 14, Adam Rabih 2, Nate Nelson 7,, Anthony Harris 14.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Tarell Clark 10, Daniel Smith 7, Chris Hamblin 8, Scott Bamforth 28, Francisco Cruz 18, Sedrick McBounds 10, Larry Brown 2.
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