If ever the Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team needed a win, Saturday was the day to get it. The Cougars, behind a gutsy defensive performance late in the game, secured the No. 1 seed from the East sub-region in registering a heart-pounding 71-69 win over Northeast Community College. The Cougars are now 3-0 in sub-region play and 19-7 overall.
WNCC coach Dave Harnish definitely was feeling a little better about his team after Saturday’s huge win.
“Definitely we needed win, especially losing three straight home games and ruined our confidence level, so from that standpoint it is huge,” Harnish said. “This is a step forward and the girls have to feel a little bit better about it. From the second point, it seals up the number one seed from the sub-region, which is the first goal of the year. As much as we struggled, at least we won the games we needed to win in our sub-region. Clinching the number one seed will be huge going into the regional tournament. Hopefully in the next two weeks we can get things ironed out and get better for regionals.”
Kelli Culver, the freshman from Colorado Springs, Colo., was just one of the many Cougars that stepped up their game. Culver finished with 11 points, but it was her two second-half treys that ignited the Cougars. Culver said if feels nice to win at home after three straight defeats on their home court.
“It is pretty big win because we have been on a losing streak for a long time,” she said. “We needed this for our coach because he has been getting mad at us and we needed this to boost our confidence.”
Definitely the Cougars needed a win of this magnitude. But once again, the Cougars had to battle from behind. This time, though, the defense played tough down stretch for the win.
“We seem to do get behind every game where we dig ourselves holes like we did tonight getting down by eight or 10,” Harnish said. “We have did that in every game and then we fight the last four and five minutes to get back into it. For some reason we struggle for 30 to 35 minutes in the game and then the last five minutes is the best part of our game. “
The Cougars definitely played some tough defense the last five minutes. They also hit some clutch shots. And, a lot of different Cougars had a hand in securing the East Sub-region championship on the afternoon.
Yuki Morimoto was the thorn in the Hawks’ side on the day. The freshman from Tokyo, Japan, finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, but it was her rebound with 6.2 second left that sealed the win for the Cougars.
Up until that point, it was anyone’s game. WNCC trailed by eight points in the second half on two different occasions, 48-40 and then later at 55-47. Both times it was a 3-pointer that stopped the Hawks’ run. Culver ripped her second of the game with 16 minutes left. Then, Stormye Everett buried a trey to cut the lead to 55-50.
Everett’s trey sparked a comeback that gave the Cougars the lead since midway in the first half. WNCC took the lead on a Culver 3-pointer, 57-56, with 8:34 to play. Northeast kept battled back taking a 66-63 lead with 3:30 to play on back-to-back 3-pointers by Sofie Lundberg and Christine Fischer.
The Cougars tied the game as Everett stole the ball and converted on a 3-point play. Then, with 1:38 to play, Amber Kistler stole the ball and found a open Tiffany Moorer to put the Cougars up 68-66.
Lundberg, who ignited for 36 points in the team’s first meeting a month ago, drained a 3-pointer to put the Hawks back up 69-68. The game was defensive after that as Northeast missed a shot-clock beating 3-pointer with 18.3 seconds and Kistler was fouled with 14 seconds to play. The Bayard graduate, who converted both free throws to put WNCC up 70-69.
Northeast’s Dawn Bonnell then drove the right-side and missed an off-balanced lay-up and Morimoto came down with the game-winning rebound.
Culver said that last minute defensive pressure was crucial in the Cougar’s 19th win of the season.
“That helped a lot [defense] with our motivation and helped us win the game” she said. “Our confidence rose a lot after this game.”
The Cougars had three players finish in double figures. Morimoto led the way with 16 points followed by Everett with 14 second-half points, while Culver chipped in 11. The Cougars also got nine points from Thais Pinto and six points from Ariane Brown.
Northeast was led by Lundberg’s 20 points and four 3-pointers, while Bonnell had 19 points and three 3-pointers.
The big key in the game was shooting, where the Cougars show 48 percent from the field and also blistered the nets from 3-point range, making 56 percent of the shots (5 of 9).WNCC also minimized their turnovers with 15. They also out-rebounded the Hawks 36-27 as Everett pulled down eight, and Morimoto had seven. Kistler finished with five assists and two steals on the day.
The Cougars will be back on the court Tuesday when they host McCook Community College in another sub-region contest. Harnish said that that game doesn’t mean much in the sub-region race, but it means a lot in the team improving for the regional tourney in March.
“That game doesn’t matter because we now have the number one seed guaranteed,” he said. “Right know we have to focus on getting better the next two weeks. We need to take it one game at a time. We have four games left before regionals and we just have to get better and get ready for regional tournament.”
Northeast (19-9) 37 32 – 69
WNCC (19-7) 35 36 – 71
NORTHEAST NEBRASKA
Christine Fischer 7, Dawn Bonnell 19, Shelby Hunger 4, Zena Nastloski 4, Sofia Lundberg 20, Carolyn Taite 10, Stephanie Taite 4, Kaneisha Williams 1.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 4, Stormye Everett 14, Shelby Campbell 2, Yuki Morimoto 16, Ariane Brown 4, Tiffany Moorer 6, Michelle Glaze 4, Thais Pinto 6, Kelli Culver 11, Khayla Gladney 1.
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