The No. 16-ranked Cougars received a huge performance in a losing effort from Bayard’s Amber Kistler who led the Cougars with 27 points, including five 3-pointers. Stormye Everett came up big as well, pitching in 18 second-half points.
Assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said that they played well in every category but one – turnovers. The Cougars committed 31 miscues to Casper’s 18.
“We definitely rebounded the ball better in the second half then the first half, but 31 turnovers hurts you compared to their 18,” Pedersen said. “We shot 73 percent from the free throw line and that is above our average.”
The Cougar women did have plenty of positives, including out-rebounding Casper 42-39 and making nine 3-pointers of 16 attempts. The Cougars also played strong defense in the second half as Thais Pinto recorded three blocked shots and Yuki Morimoto had 11 assists.
“We just started off the game by turning the ball over four straight times to start the game and got down. We came back in the second half and ran our offense and played strong defense during the stretch. We came back and had an opportunity to win the game with a wide-open layup.”
WNCC got behind the eight ball early, trailing 38-29 at halftime and trailed by as many as 14 in the second half before the Cougars made a comeback. With under five minutes to play in regulation, Everett nailed two 3-pointers and Kistler buried one to bring the Cougars to 75-73 with a minute to play.
Thais Pinto finally tied the contest at 75-75 with 38 seconds to play. The Cougars got the ball back with 12.5 seconds left and had a good chance to win the game in regulation, but missed a lay-up to force overtime.
In the extra period, The Cougars never could get a lead. They did, however, cut the lead to one point on 1 of 2 Kistler free throws. Casper held an 87-83 lead with 31.6 on two Juliana Paunovic free throws. WNCC came right back with Tiffany Moorer converting two free throws to cut the lead to 87-85 with 12.6 seconds to play. Casper turned the ball on the inbounds play. WNCC immediately fouled and the T-birds missed two free throws. The Cougars couldn’t get off a shot in the final seconds to suffer their third defeat of the season.
The Cougars had four players finish in double figures. Behind Kistler’s 27 and Everett’s 18, Michelle Glaze came off the bench to score 12 points followed by Pinto with 11 points. Pinto finished with a double-double adding 10 rebounds to her total.
Casper was paced by Samira Van Grinsven with 29 points, including 11 of 16 from the free throw line. Casper was 24 of 35 from the charity stripe as a team, while WNCC was 16 of 22.
The Cougars biggest nightmare was turnovers, where they committed 31 miscues. WNCC out-rebounded Casper 42-39 and made nine 3-pointers of 16 attempts.
WNCC, 15-3, will look to get back on the winning track Saturday when they travel to Norfolk to face Northeast Community College in a sub-region contest.
WNCC (15-3) 29 46 10 – 85
Casper (18-3) 38 37 12 – 87
CASPER
Sherece Huddlin 1, Jasmine Belin 4, Samira Van Grinsven 29, Shanice Billington 18, Wendy Walker 2, Megan Wilson 6, Lindsey Fearing 9, Juliana Paunovic 18.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 27, Stormye Everett 18, Yuki Morimoto 5, TiffanyMoorer 7, Michelle Glaze 12, Thais Pinto 11, Khayla Gladney 5.
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