WNCC women pick up 14th win by pounding Lamar 74-41

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team placed four players in double figures as they cruised to their 14^th win of the season with a 74-41 win against Lamar Community College Friday night on the road.

Stormye Everett of Aurora, Colo., paced the team with 16 points followed by Bayard’s Amber Kistler with 14 points and two 3-pointers. Shaquilah Davis of Colorado Springs, Colo., and SeLina Ysac of Scottsbluff also pitched in with 13 and 12 points each.

The Cougars, despite being out-rebounded by 20-plus boards, controlled the contest from the get-go, taking a 38-20 lead into halftime.

“We played well. I think we executed our offense well. We changed it up. We pressed all night and everyone that went in executed well,” WNCC assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said. “It was a pretty fast-paced game. We didn’t shoot very well the first half and there were a lot of rebounds. We full-court pressed so the guards had some opportunities for easy lay ups.”

As much as the team received a balanced offensive output, the fourth bes defensive team in the nation also put up another stern defensive effort. The Cougars entered giving up just 51 points a game and stymied the Lamar offense for just 41 points.

“Defensively we were reallly strong as a team and we need to keep that up,” Pedersen said.

The other thing that impressed Pedersen with the win was the fact that everyone played well, including Scottsbluff’s Ashley Burns, who joined the team at semester. Burns played the final five minutes and recorded three rebounds in her first time on the court for the Cougars.

The other thing that helped the Cougars shine offensively was the fact that they were 100 percent healthy.

“It is nice to have every one healthy,” Pedersen said. “I honestly need to knock on wood that this is the first game we played that we didn’t have an injury in 16 games. It was nice to be able to utilize the entire bench tonight for a change.”

The Cougars will look for their 15^th win of the season Saturday night when they battle Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colo. Otero enters the contest with a 13-4 record. WNCC defeated the Rattlers in December 72-49.

“We definitely need to rebound a lot better [tonight],” Pedersen said. “ We can’t get out-rebounded to Otero at their place. We also just need to finish our shots. We had some easy shots below the bucket that we missed, and we need to make those bunny shots.”

WNCC (14-3) 38 36 – 74
Lamar C.C. (10-10) 20 21 – 41
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 14, Lorena Medeiros 2, SeLina Ysac 12, Shaquilah Davis 13, Stormye Everett 16, Tawny Drexler 3, Caley Fisher 5, Juliana Bassetto 9.