The No. 15-ranked Cougars put four players in double figures, including a 22-point effort from freshman from Yuki Morimoto. Also collecting double figure scoring was 6-foot-7 Thais Pinto with 16 points, Bayard’s Amber Kistler with 16 and Scottsbluff’s Madison Keller with 10.
The Cougars shot 49 percent from the field, including blistering the net from beyond the 3-point arc for 46 percent. Kistler, Morimoto and Hemingford’s Shelby Campbell all had two 3-pointers, while Keller netted on trey.
Assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said while it was nice to pick up the win, they need to focus on playing tougher defense.
“The one thing we learned tonight was we need to do a better job defensively and on the boards. We out-rebounded them tonight, but our rebounding effort wasn’t very strong. I think we gave up 70 points tonight when we really shouldn’t have given up that many points.
“But for the first game of the year, we came out and executed offensively very well throughout the night. We just need to work on defense a little bit more this week.”
WNCC started slow leading 16-13 with just seven minutes into the game and before pushing it to 26-17 at the 9:16 mark. The offense continued opening up as the Cougars led 46-34 at halftime. WNCC led by as much as 22 points in the game in the second half.
Pedersen said the reason they played well offensively was because of their height advantage.
“They zoned us all night so we were able to run a high-low offense because we were a lot taller than them,” she said.
WNCC will be back in action next week when they travel to the Air Force Prep Thursday. The Cougars first contest will be against Northwest (Wyo.) College.
“We need to get a lot better defensively and a lot better on the boards,” she said.
WNCC (1-0) 46 40 – 86
Colby C.C. 34 34 – 68
WNCC
Shelby Campbell 6, Yuki Morimoto 22, Khayla Gladney 2, Amber Kistler 13, Kelli Culver 6, Thais Pinto 16, Madison Keller 10, Tayler Puttergill 3, Michelle Glaze 2, Carolina Alves 6.
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