NORTH PLATTE – The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team overcame a sluggish first-half shooting to play strong defense in the second half to claim a 50-40 win over North Platte Community College Tuesday on the road.
The win moves the Cougars to 19-3 on the season as they get ready to host a key South Sub-region contest on Friday when McCook Community College comes to Cougar Palace for a 5:30 p.m. contest.
Tuesday's win was one where WNCC had to battle a North Platte team that was looking for an upset over WNCC. The Cougars owned a 54-9 overall record against the Knights and after the first half, it seemed as if North Platte might get their 10th win in the history between the two squads.
WNCC fled 8-2 early after back-to-back 3-pointers by Mackenzie Joseph and Adelina Urtane. North Platte came back and took a 9-8 lead before WNCC went back on top 13-12 on a Faith Walker old-fashioned 3-point play. North Platte led 15-13 after the first quarter.
The second quarter was low scoring on both sides, especially for the Cougar women as WNCC scored just five points in that period on a Joseph triple and then later a bucket by Ebere Egbirika. But, while WNCC had trouble scoring, so did North Platte as the Knights only scored eight points in the quarter to lead 23-18 at halftime.
The 18 points that the Cougars scored in the first half was one of the lowest since 2015 when they scored 18 points in a half that year.
The second half was a different story for the Cougars on both the offensive and defensive end. North Platte ran out to a 34-25 lead midway through the third quarter. After that, the WNCC defense held North Platte scoreless the rest of the quarter while the offense found their stride as Walker had five straight points to bring WNCC to within 34-30. Amiyah Donaldson then buried a 3-pointer to bring WNCC to within 34-33. Walker then put the Cougars on top with a bucket with 1:52 to play in the third. Jamie Caron closed out the scoring with a fielder to give WNCC a 37-34 lead going into the fourth.
WNCC opened the game on a bucket by Walker and an old-fashioned 3-point play by Laura Montiel for a 42-34 lead. North Platte finally scored after nearly nine minutes without a bucket. But, the two points from the Knights was answered by Egbirike and Donaldson who had buckets for a 46-38 lead.
North Platte tied a comeback, slicing the Cougar lead to 46-40, but the Cougars scored the final four points, hitting clutch free throws to get the 50-40 win.
WNCC shot just 39 percent in the game and was 6-of-26 from the 3-point line. WNCC was also 8-of-12 from the charity stripe. North Platte shot 28 percent from the field and were just 4-of-18 from behind the arc. The Knights were also just 2-of-5 from the free throw line.
WNCC won the rebound battle 39-37 behind seven boards from Urtane and six from Joseph.
WNCC had just one in double figures as Walker had 13 points with five rebounds. Joseph finished with nine points while Egbirika had eight and Montiel had seven.
WNCC 13 5 19 13 – 50
North Platte 15 8 11 6 – 40
WNCC
Amiyah Donaldson 6, Gal-La Font 2, Laura Montiel 7, Faith Walker 13, Mackenzie Joseph 9, Ebere Egbirika 8, Jamie Caron 2, Adelina Urtane 3.
NORTH PLATTE
Neveah Golden 4, Kateria Gooden 2, Dazjanae Greene 12, Jada Grigsby 3, Nariah Golden 6, Jada Thompson 11, Emily Johnson 2.