Knights win battle over Lancers

North Platte, Neb. – North Platte Community College women's basketball team finishes the weekend sweep of Wyoming teams by defeating the Lancers of Eastern Wyoming College on Saturday afternoon, 70-57.

"We had another great defensive effort today," said head coach Jeff Thurman. "I thought we made some good adjustments in the second half that lifted us to the win."

Knights fell behind early as the Lancers jumped out to a two-point advantage in the opening twenty-eight seconds of the first quarter. Janay Brauer answered for the Knights after receiving the pass from Jordyn Moon, drilling a three to give the Knights their first lead of the game, 3-2.

Eastern Wyoming quickly retook the lead and used a 7-1 run to take a five-point lead into the media timeout midway through the first quarter. Out of the timeout, Diamond Moore-Heath added her name to the stat sheet by grabbing her own offensive rebound and completing the old school three-point play to pull the Knights back within two, 7-9. North Platte and Eastern Wyoming continued to battle on the offensive end and traded buckets over the final 3:45 of the first quarter.

North Platte reversed the momentum by mounting an 8-0 run midway through the second quarter to recapture the lead, as Kayla Pope capitalized on her two free throw attempts, 23-22. Eastern Wyoming retook the lead just thirty-two seconds later, but the Knights would not be denied down the stretch and mounted a 14-5 run to close the quarter with the eight-point advantage, 37-29.

To start the third quarter the Lancers cut the deficit down to five, but the Knights quickly extended their lead to nine as Moore-Heath turned two offensive rebounds into points, 41-32. Eastern Wyoming answered with a short 4-0 run to cut the deficit back down to five with 6:16 to play in the third quarter.  

Brauer had the answer for the Knights and drilled a corner three to push the lead back to eight. On the Knights next possession, Fumnanya Ijeh gave the Knights their largest lead of the contest thus far by getting her off balance floater to fall just before the media timeout, 46-36. Out of the timeout, the Knights kept their momentum rolling and pushed their lead to thirteen as Moore-Heath connected on a bucket inside the paint, 53-40.

Eastern Wyoming temporarily halted the momentum with a bucket inside twenty seconds to play, but Moore-Heath answered and beat the buzzer to extend the Knights lead to twelve at the end of the third quarter, 55-43.

In the final ten minutes, the Knights had to fend off multiple runs including a 5-0 run by the Lancers to start the fourth quarter. Brauer found Moon cutting to the basket for an open layup in transition to temporarily halt the momentum shift. The Knights managed to extend their lead out to ten, but the Lancers wouldn't go away easily and quickly cut the deficit back to seven with 5:33 remaining.

Defenses tightened up over the next three minutes, before the Knights shook off the rust and closed the game on a 7-2 run to seal their second win of the season.

"It's always good to start the year off on a positive note," said Thurman. "We still have a lot of work to do but we are extremely happy with our results this weekend."

Moore-Heath added another double-double to her name tallying 19 points to accompany her 15 rebounds. Pope and Brauer joined their teammate in the double-digit scoring column with 18 and 15 points, respectively.

North Platte (2-0) will get a few days off from regular season action before returning to the hardwood for the Cobblestone Hotel & Suites Classic in McCook on Friday, November 12. Tip is set for 5:30pm at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.