WNCC outscores Garden City 54-20 in second half to pick up 12th win of the season

Yuki Morimoto had two special fans in the crowd Friday night and she definitely put on a show, scoring 27 points in leading the Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team to an 89-47 win over Garden City Community College in the second day of the Lady Cougar Holiday Classic.

Morimoto’s solid play brought smiles from her father, Hiromi, and brother, Hiroki, as the two flew in from Japan to watch her play. She, or her teammates, definitely didn’t disappoint as they played one of their best halves of the year, outscoring the Broncbusters 54-20 in the second half to pick up their 12^th win of the season.

The Cougars will look to finish off the first semester Saturday as they face Colby Community College at 3 p.m. Garden City will battle Air Force Prep at 1 p.m. of the tournament.

But it wasn’t totally Morimoto that stood out as she might of scored 27 points, but she also registered six assists and four steals. Three other Cougars finished in double figures for the night as Stormye Everett had 14 points, followed by Thais Pinto and Tiffany Moorer with 10 points each.

The Cougars also received a big lift from the bench as they out-scored Garden City 31-13. Leading the charge off the bench was Mullen High School graduate Tayler Puttergill, who cashed in on eight points, including back-to-back 3-pointers to finish the game.

The Cougars second half spurt was one of the Cougars best of the year, and Puttergill said head coach Dave Harnish told them at intermission that they needed to come out strong.

“We came out slow but we ended up going the pace that we needed to beat them,” she said. “Coach told us at halftime that we needed to go out there and just play. We weren’t making shots in the first half. Then, the second half we came out and played really well.”

WNCC held a slim 35-27 lead at halftime after being up 31-17 with five minutes to play on seven points from Moorer.

The second half opened with a flurry as WNCC ran off the eight of the first 10 points as Morimoto and Kistler each recorded two buckets each. The Cougars kept executing on offense and defense throughout the half as Kistler hit another bucket with 15 minutes left to put them up 51-23.

Garden City tried coming back, slicing the lead to 56-40, but Everett nailed back-to-back buckets. After a free throw from Garden City, WNCC scored 10 straight points, including four points from Morimoto and six points from Pinto.

WNCC continued playing well as Puttergill, who was a post at Mullen, came up big down the stretch nailing back-to-back 3-pointers on the right wing. Puttergill said it is change playing a guard position from high school.

“It felt really good to hit those threes. I have been working on my shot quite a bit, so it is good to know that hard work pays off,” she said. “This is definitely a change from going from a post in high school to a guard because I am not used to playing guard as much. Our coach didn’t like us shooting threes in high school because we always had to pound it into the paint.”

The Cougars shooting in the second half was a marked improvement from the first half, where they shot 32 percent. In the second half, they blistered the nets for 53 percent shooting. WNCC also canned 7 of 12 3-pointers. The Cougars also dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Broncbusters 56-34, led by Khayla Gladney and Michelle Glaze with six rebounds each.

Garden City was led in scoring by 6-foot-4 Mansela Rodriguez with 18 points and eight rebounds.

First Game
Prep 33 31 – 64
Colby 26 27 – 53
AIR FORCE PREP
Cherae Medina 19, Bryanna Mueller 7, Camille Thompson 3, Jacko Salas 4, Testa Davis 12, Alannah Staver 1, Harriet Lakind 5, Caitlin Boal 13
COLBY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Tasha Wagoner 5, Danisha Cole 21, Aliecia Palm 6, Destini Stewart 3, Tamara Williams 4, Crystal Kinderknecht 14.

Second Game
Garden City 27 20 -- 47
WNCC 35 54 – 89
GARDEN CITY
Cgeree Freeman 3, Aileen Gonzalez 3, Aubrica Robins 11, Myranda Monroe 2, Jasmine Troup 4, LeMesia Abbott 2, Mansela Rodriguez 18, Victoria Naylor 4.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 5, Stormye Everett 14, Yuki Morimoto 27, Ariane Brown 6, Tiffany Moorer 10, Carolina Alves 3, Tayler Puttergill 8, Michelle Glaze 4, Thais Pinto 10, Khayla Gladney 2.