The Eastern Wyoming College women’s basketball team came into Cougar Place to face Western Nebraska Community College with one objective on their mind and that was to walk off of Ron Brillhart Court with a W. Mission accomplished as the bus ride back to Torrington, Wyo., had some happy Lancers aboard as they had the right amount of swagger in their game after posting a huge 68-66 win over the Cougars Thursday night.
In fact, there wasn’t one time the Lancers were one bit intimidated by the Cougar’s recent success as they hit the shots when they needed in posting their 12th of the season.
Noelle Jones was just one of the heroes f
or the Lancers on the night. The Burns, Wyo., graduate finished with three clutch 3-pointers, including back-to-back treys in the second half. Jones finished with 15 points on the night and couldn’t be more elated with the win.
“This win feels awesome. This is the first time in any sport that we have beat WNCC for a couple of years,” Jones said. “We took good shots and hit some really big shots in the second half. We rebounded well and moved the ball really well, which was something we needed to do.”
Another big key for the smaller Lancers against a taller Cougar team was rebounding. WNCC won the rebounding total 55-48, but it was the Lancers’ 20 offensive rebounds that were big factors in the contest.
“I think rebounding won us the game,” Jones said. “If we wouldn’t have had some of those offensive rebounds, we wouldn’t have got those fouls and wouldn’t have gotten to the free throw line. Those foul shots at the end were huge for us.”
WNCC never really could find that right mixture on the court to run off a string of points. WNCC coach Dave Harnish said it is frustrating watching his team struggle considering they had such a fine first semester. This was the Cougars second straight defeat and they are now 5-5 in the second semester.
“We didn’t shot well tonight and give credit Eastern Wyoming, we just can’t stop the ball,” he said. “The bottom line is defensively. The bottom line is we don’t have any defensive intensity because we allow people to penetrate on us, we allow people to shoot threes on us, and we dig ourselves in holes.”
The contest was actually a battle of two evenly matched teams. The two Highway 26 rivals were tied 24-24 late in the first half on back-to-back buckets by Amber Kister moments after Jones’ nailed her first 3-pointer of the game. Then Lancers finished the half leading 27-26 at intermission.
WNCC came out of the locker room with some new life as Kistler buried a trey and moments later Khayla Gladney put back a bucket for a 34-33 lead. Jones brought the Lancers back as she buried back-to-back 3-pointers and moments later Kylie Erickson knocked home a 3-pointer to give the Lancers their biggest lead of the game 50-40 with 11 minutes left.
The Lancers continued playing strong as they went to the free throw line a number of times to go ahead 53-45 with 7:30 to play. WNCC didn’t stop fighting as they went on a 10-0 run to take a 55-53 lead 4:22 to play as Stormye Everett had eight of the 10 points.
After that, both teams traded baskets as Kistler recorded two clutch buckets, including two points off an offensive rebound to take a 62-61 lead with 1:14 to play. EWC scored the next five points as Jones had a bucket and then Jessica Brown and Koel Hall combined on three free throws.
Yuki Morimoto brought the Cougars back with a 3-pointer that rattled. WNCC had a prime chance to win the game late as EWC’s Marque Lunderman missed two free throws with 11.1 seconds remaining, but on the Cougars’ ensuing possession, they turned the ball over. Danielle Brown then hit one free throw and a half-court heave from the Cougars was just off the mark.
The Lancers had just two players in double figures as Jessica Brown lead all scorers with 25 points. She also pulled down 10 rebounds and had two steals. Jones finished with her 15 points, including 7 of 12 from the free throw line and three 3-pointers.
The Lancers also got clutch scoring from Danielle Brown and Krystal Pittman who each finished with seven points.
The Cougars placed five players in double digits. Kistler led the way with 17 points, while Everett came off the bench to score 13 points. Morimoto, Gladney and Tiffany Moorer each had 10 points. Morimoto finished with a double-double with 11 rebounds.
Both squads will be back in action Saturday. The Lancers will host Little Big Horn at 5:30 p.m., while the Cougars will entertain Northeast (Neb.) Community College at 1 p.m.
Jones said that the Lancers are playing well right now, especially after they took down Sheridan College and Northwest Wyoming last week at home.
“I think we are peaking right now and I think we are getting better and better as the year goes on,” she said. “We need to peak at the Region IX tournament and I think we will. Everybody contributed tonight and it was a whole team effort.”
EWC (12-12) 27 41 – 68
WNCC (18-7) 26 40 – 66
EASTERN WYOMING
Krystal Pittman 7, Koel Hall 3, Jessica Brown 25, April Johnson 2, Noelle Jones 15, Marque Lunderman 2, Danielle Brown 7, Sarah Smith 3, Kylie Erickson 4.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 17, Stormye Everett 13, Shelby Campbell 4, Yuki Morimoto 10, Tiffany Moorer 10, Michelle Glaze 1, Kelli Carver 1, Khayla Gladney 10.
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