WNCC open home campaign with 68-50 win

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team showed why they are one of the top defensive teams in the nation Thursday night in the first day of the Colorado/Nebraska Showcase.

The Cougars ran out to a 13-0 lead and pushed the lead to 43-20 at halftime in securing a 68-50 win over the Rattlers at Cougar Palace.

The win lifted the Cougars to 8-2 on the season. WNCC will look to keep winning in the home tournament as they take on Lamar Community College Friday at 7 p.m. Lamar fell to McCook Community College 70-67 in the early game. McCook will battle Otero at 5 p.m.

WNCC head coach Dave Harnish said they played well in the first half as the two sophomores Amber Kistler and Stormye Everett combined for 25 of the team’s 43 first half points. Everett had 16 of her game-high 25 points.

“I don’t know if that was our best first half, but I think we learned from the second half against Seward [a game the Cougars lost] of how to play the game and I think we carried that over to the first half tonight,” Harnish said. “I thought we competed well and did things well offensively and defensively. If you don’t have the mental concentration, which we lost at halftime, it turned in a very sloppy second half. I am disappointed of how we finished the game. I think that is why we lost against better teams is because we don’t play for 40 minutes and we were thankful to have a big lead at halftime.”

The Cougars started their first home game of the season like world beaters, racing to a 13-0 lead behind 3-pointers by Everett and Yuki Morimoto. Otero didn’t cash in its first points until four minutes into the contest; yet that lone bucket was nothing that rattled the Cougars as they went on a 13-3 run to lead 26-5 with 10 minutes left in the half.

WNCC kept executing well offensively as Everett had six of the final 10 points of the half, while Kistler grabbed a defensive rebound and raced the length of the court for a layup for a 43-20 lead after the first 20 minutes.

Harnish said the big reason for the strong start was they learned how to play hard in the second half against Seward, a game they lost by a single point.

“We were down by nine at halftime against Seward and came out and played a very good second half with a chance to win the game, and they just carried that play over to tonight,” he said. “We have to worry about ourselves and if we come out and compete, rebound and play defense, we can be a pretty good team. If we don’t do that regardless of who we play, we won’t be very good.”

The Cougars second half play was sporadic as the Rattlers outscored the Cougars 30-25. Otero quickly took command early scoring cutting the lead to 45-25, but a 3-pointer by Kistler ignited the Cougars. After that, WNCC pushed the lead to 61-34 with seven minutes left. WNCC kept the lead around the 20-point mark as all 14 players suited up saw action in the contest.

Everett led the No. 18 Cougars with 25 points and six rebounds, while Kistler had 13 points and five boards. Thais Pinto, the Cougars’ 6-foot-7 post player, finished the night with nine points, five rebounds and three blocks.

Otero was led by Chelsea Rotonado with 14 points followed by Melinda Perry with eight points and seven rebounds.

Harnish is hoping his team plays better against a Lamar team that trailed McCook by 10 points late in the second half and sliced the lead to a single point with under 30 seconds to play before falling.

“We have played 10 games now and it should be something that they should know,” he said. “it has been very difficult to get this team to play for a full 40 minutes.”

First Game
McCook 70, Lamar 67
Lamar 31 36 – 67
McCook 37 33 – 70
LAMAR
Morgan Smith 8, Kanisha Cooks 17, Brittany Rayford 5 Krystina George 4, Brianna Hopkins 10, Jackie Eberhard 2, Emily Williams 21.
MCCOOK
Alexa Ward 2, Sierra Guy 2, Tiani Cole 1, Ellie Hiester 22, Britney Bunker 10, Emmalee Fladland 6, Jacqueline Lovato 2, Donell Betts 9, Skylar Johnson 7, Julia Hale 2, Lauren Woods 7.

Second Game
WNCC 68, Otero 50
Otero (8-2) 20 30 – 50
WNCC (8-2) 43 25 – 68
OTERO
Rose Harvey-Akers 6, Chelsea Ratondo 14, Kersten Jaramillo 2, Ashley Jelly 2, Myecha Taylor 3, Kaitlyn Lowen 5, Ashlynn Steffensen 2, Christian Anderson 2, Kari Ameling 2, Melinda Perry 8, Upuia Fui 2.
WNCC
Amber Kistler 13, Stormye Everett 25, Shelby Campbell 3, Yuki Morimoto 7, Ariane Brown 2, Tiffany Moorer 4, Tynetta Turner 2, Michelle Glaze 1, Thais Pinto 9, Kelli Culver 2.