WOMEN’S GAME
The 10th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team received 32 points from Ale’Jah Douglas as the Cougar women topped McCook Community College 97-63 in the South Sub-region opener for the Cougars.
The win was the Cougars’ 16th of the season as they move to 16-1 on the season. WNCC will now have a day off before they have a Sunday afternoon contest with Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington, Wyoming, beginning at 2 p.m. for the doubleheader.
WNCC head coach Chad Gibney said he thought his team played well.
“I thought we did a really nice job,” Gibney said. “I thought we moved the ball really well. We didn’t shoot a lot from the perimeter, but we got in transition and got easy baskets. I was really happy offensively. Then defensively at times I thought we were elite. We have to shore up our rebounding, but I was happy with our performance.”
The Cougar and McCook women battled early in the first quarter. WNCC led 8-1 only to watch McCook comeback to cut the deficit to 8-5. WNCC then picked up the defense and outscored the Indians 10-4 the rest of the quarter to lead 18-9 after one.
The second quarter was where the Cougars really shined offensively and defensively. Gibney said he was pleased with the second quarter that saw WNCC open go from a 9-point lead after one to a 24-point lead at halftime.
“Defensively I thought we really stepped up in the quarter,” he said. “We really brought the fight to them.”
WNCC pushed the lead in the second quarter to 26-11 on six points from Douglas. WNCC went up 33-14 as Shayane Poirot nailed the team’s first 3-pointer of the game. Later, Isabelle Cook had back-to-back easy lay-ins for a 39-16 lead. The Cougars kept playing hard to lead 48-24 at halftime.
The third quarter saw the Cougars outscore McCook 25-16 and really never let the Indians get within 20 points the rest of the way. WNCC led 73-40 after three after back-to-back buckets by Douglas.
The fourth quarter saw WNCC lead 95-56 after a Poirot trey with about three minutes to play. The Cougars entered the contest with a 10-game streak of holding their opponents to under 60 points and the question was would the streak go to 11. McCook went on a 6-0 run and hit 60 points with 1:33 to play on a free throw to stop the streak. WNCC won 97-63.
WNCC put 11 players in the scoring column but only one had double figures. Douglas finished with 32 points with two treys. She also had 11 steals in the contest. Amani Brown and Aminata Zie each had nine points while Cook had eight.
WNCC shot 49 percent from the field but were just 26 percent from beyond the arc (5-of-19). Douglas and Poirot each had two treys, while Fields had the other three ball.
WNCC’s defense held McCook to just 33 percent shooting and 6 percent from beyond the arc (1-of-17).
The Cougars barely won the rebound battle 44-43. Fields led the way with seven boards followed by Ashley Panem with six.
The big statistic was steals, where the Cougars finished with 25 steals. Douglas had 11 while Panem finished with five and Brown and Fields with three each.
Women’s game
McCook 9 15 16 23 – 63
WNCC 18 30 25 24 – 97
WNCC
Ale’Jah Douglas 32, Amani Brown 9, Aminata Zie 9, Martrice Brooks 7, Shanti Henry 5, Ashley Panem 6, Payton Fields 7, Shayane Poirot 6, Isabelle Cook 8, Mia Jaye Sarkodee-Adoo 2, Rashaan Smith 6.
MCCOOK
Vanessa Jurewicz 15, Sonia Sato 8, Shelby Clark 2, Maite Lara Garcia 13, Alyssa Van Vleet 11, Carla Torrubia Cano 14.
MEN’S GAME
The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team fell short in their South Sub-region opener, falling to McCook Community College 69-65 in a hard-fought and defensive contest Friday evening at Cougar Palace.
WNCC falls to 10-5 on the season and will have little time to rest as they will head to Torrington, Wyoming, Sunday afternoon to face Eastern Wyoming College.
Friday’s contest was one where the Cougar men only scored 26 second-half points in the defeat. Despite that, though, the contest was one that both teams had missed opportunities. McCook just hit enough in the final two minutes to get the win.
The men’s game was one that came down to the final seconds. WNCC started strong in the first half running to a 13-2 lead on 3-pointers by Biko Johnson, Carl Thorpe, and Carter Brown. The Cougars led 20-9 and later at 24-14 on a Rodney Sawyer trey.
That was when WNCC went cold from the field and McCook went on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 24-24 on a free throw by Ezichi Kalu with 10 minutes to play. WNCC went back up by six at 39-33 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Brown and held a 39-37 lead at halftime.
The second half saw WNCC lead 47-41 on a Thorpe bucket. McCook came back to lead 51-47 on a Julian Lual bucket. The game went back and forth as the game was tied at 57-57 before WNCC went up 59-57 on a Thorpe bucket. McCook went back in front at 62-59 on an old-fashioned 3-point play from Kalu and then two free throws by Damien Perry. WNCC tied the game at 63-63 on a bucket by Thorpe with 3:41 to play.
McCook took a 66-63 lead on an old-fashioned 3-point play from DaMiene Boles with 1:49 to play. The Indians went up by four at 67-63 on a free throw by Perry. WNCC cut the lead to 67-65 on a bucket by Agwa Nywesh, but two free throws with 2.9 seconds left sealed the win for McCook.
WNCC had two in double figures, led by Nywesh with 17 and Biko Johnson with 16. Thorpe and Brown each had nine points while Turumbil Zaki had eight.
Both teams shot about the same. WNCC was 39 percent from the field and 38 percent from beyond the arc (9-of-24). McCook was just 43 percent from the field and only 17 percent from the 3-point line (3-of-16).
The difference in the game came down to free throw shooting. McCook was 20-of-28 from the line while WNCC was 16-of-23.
McCook won the rebound total 37-33 and also won the blocked shots total 6-4.
Men’s Game
McCook 37 32 – 69
WNCC 39 26 – 65
WNCC
Carter Brown 9, Rodney Sawyer 5, Biko Johnson 16, Carl Thorpe 9, Agwa Nywesh 17, Turumbil Zaki 8, Mamadou Sow 1.
MCCOOK
Julian Lual 17, Damien Perry 13, DeMiene Boles 8, Beni Fungula 5, Ezichi Kalu 16, D’Andre Dennis 6, Trey Summers 2, Martin Poznanovic 2.
