The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team entered this weekend needing three things to happen in order for the Cougars to host next month's Region IX tournament.
Part one of that equation happened Friday night as the team came back from a 19-point deficit to register a 74-57 win against Northeast Community College.
Saturday night, the Cougar women finished off the magic by registering an 80-51 victory over McCook Community College. The win gave the Cougars the right to host regionals after the team won the weekend games by the required margin of victory – 15 points – and then won the coin flip late Friday night. WNCC women's coach Dave Harnish said this team earned the right to host regionals, overcoming enormous odds.
"It was a little unexpected. I thought we played well the last two or three weeks. We have been practicing a lot better," he said. "Other than that game we should have won done at Sterling, we have played well the last two or three weeks. Knowing that going into this weekend playing well, I thought we had a chance. To have it happen is kind of a surprise in the way it did. We had to come together and win both games by 15 and then win the coin flip. One of those three things could have went down, but everything came in our favor. It is a good achievement for the girls because they worked hard the last two or three weeks. I am very proud of accomplishing this."
Saturday's game wasn't a perfectly played game for the Cougars. A big contributor to that was the team didn't have the normal legs that they had on Friday because of how hard they had to play to comeback to beat Northeast. Saturday, however, the women left little doubt who the superior team was.
"The key tonight was the first half. It was important for us to jump on them early and get a lead at halftime, which took a lot of relief off," Harnish said. "We played terrible in the second half. It was a situation where I think we were tired from the night before and we lost some of our legs and not getting back on defense. Luckily, we played a very good first half, got the big lead, and were able to keep that."
McCook's Britney Bunker made an early 3-pointer to keep the Indians in the game, down by one, 4-3. After that, the Cougars heated up, going on a 17-0 run to race to a 21-4 lead. The Cougars used a strong inside game and outside shooting from Caley Fisher, who canned two 3-pointers and a trey by Stormye Everett. Amber Kistler finished off the run with an offensive putback.
McCook never could put together back-to-back buckets in the first half as WNCC raced to a 43-16 lead.
McCook played better in the second half scoring 35 points, including 11 from Bunker in that period. WNCC, however, continued flexing it's offensive muscles with an inside-outside game that was unstoppable. SeLina Ysac buried three 3-pointers in the second half and Lorena Medeiros had a trey to help keep the margin of victory over the 15 points the Cougars needed to host regionals.
Five Cougars finished in double figures led by Shaquilah Davis with 16 points, Kistler with 12, Ysac and Everett with 11, and Tawny Drexler with 10. All 10 Cougars saw action and scored in the contest.
McCook was paced by Bunker's 20 points. No other McCook finished with double-digit scoring.
Harnish said the team didn't shoot the ball well, but they got the win. That was the most important part.
"I don't think we shot the ball well overall. The second half was a sloppy second half," he said. "The bottom line was that we had to win by 15 and regardless what the stats showed, the girls went out and did that. Winning the coin flip was huge. That all doesn't mean we won the regional tournament, but it is nice to be able to host it and play on your home court now."
WNCC will next be in action Tuesday evening when they entertain Otero Junior College at 5 p.m., followed by the last regular season home game against Northeastern Junior College Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Region IX tournament begins March 6 and runs for five days.
WNCC (22-6) 43 37 – 80
MCCOOK
Michelle Price 7, Kylie Berry 2, Keri Novacek 3, Britney Bunker 20, Emmalee Fladland 9, Skylar Johnson 3, Julia Hale 4, Tara Wille 1
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 12, Lorna Medeiros 5, SeLina Ysac 11, Shaquilah Davis 16, Stormye Everett 11, Janae Willis 2, Tawny Drexler 10, Caley Fisher 8, Ashley Burns 1, Juliana Bassetto 4.
No comments:
Post a Comment