Cougar women roll to big win over Miles

Cougar women roll to big win over Miles
(WNCC Sports Information)
December 6th, 2021 | WNCC Sports Information

GILLETTE, Wyo. – The 11th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team put four in double figures and all 13 players scored as the Cougar women had no trouble in picking up their 10th win of the season with an 101-28 win over Miles Community College Sunday night at Gillette, Wyoming, in the final day of the Border Wars Shootout.

The win moves the Cougars to 10-1 on the season with four more games left in the semester before taking the holidays off.

WNCC head coach Chad Gibney said sometimes these games are harder to play than games against ranked teams.

“We talked about that in the pre-game that sometimes these games are harder to play than ones that end up being really close, tough games because it takes just more mental toughness to be able to play every possession knowing they probably can take one or two possessions off and it is not going to dictate the end result,” Gibney said. “We talked about that championship teams have great mental toughness and physical toughness. So, we just went on with that [philosophy] and tried to be play with mental toughness.”

There was little doubt of the outcome in the contest after WNCC opened the contest scoring the first nine points. Miles hit a bucket to make it 9-2, but WNCC went up 16-2 before the Pioneers had a 3-pointer. WNCC then closed out the first quarter on a 12-0 run that was started by a Yara Garcia 3-pointer and a Martrice Brooks old-fashioned 3-point play to lead 28-5 after the first 10 minutes.

The Cougars opened the second quarter on a 12-0 run to lead 40-5 before Miles hit a bucket with about six minutes to play. Rashaan Smith, who led the Cougars in scoring hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 45-9. WNCC led 52-14 at halftime.

The third quarter saw WNCC outscore the Pioneers 26-8 as the Cougars led 66-15 at one time followed by a 76-22 lead after three.

The fourth quarter saw the Cougars build a 91-22 lead and hit the century mark for the third time this season when Mia Jaye Sarkodee-Adoo hit a bucket with under a minute to play.

WNCC shot 54 percent for the contest from the field and 27 percent from behind the 3-point arc (6-of-22). The Cougars held Miles to just 21 percent shooting and to just .08 shooting from beyond the arc (2-of-26).

Miles did shoot the ball better from the free throw line, making 75 percent of their charity stripes (6-of-8) while WNCC was just 54 percent (13-of-24).

WNCC won the rebound battle 43-25. Aminata Zie led the team with nine boards while Ashley Panem had six rebounds and Payton Fields had five.

The Cougars also had 20 steals in the contest, led by Ale’Jah Douglas had six and Martrice Brooks finished with four.

WNCC was led by Smith with 18 points, the most as a Cougar. Brooks finished with 15 points, while Douglas and Zie each had 10 points.

WNCC will hit the road for three games this weekend in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the LCCC Classic. WNCC will play Western Wyoming Community College on Thursday at 3 p.m. followed by Laramie County Community College Friday at 7 p.m. before wrapping up the classic on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Central Wyoming College.

WNCC will then wrap up the first semester with a home contest on December 14 when they host LCCC in a men’s and women’s doubleheader with the women’s tip-off set for 6 p.m.

WNCC (10-1)      28 24 26 23 – 101

Miles (2-12)        5 9 6 8 – 28

WNCC

Ale’Jah Douglas 10, Amani Brown 8, Aminata Zie 10, Shanti Henry 5, Payton Fields 6, Yara Garcia 6, Breanna Fowler 3, Martrice Brooks 15, Ashley Panem 6, Shayane Poirot 8, Genet Mebratu 2, Mia Jaye Sarkodee-Adoo 4, Rashaan Smith 18.

MILES

Aylin Ramirez 1, Angelina Dimasi 7, Molly Cockburn 8, Citlalli Gurrola 3, Kelbee Denham 2, Gabby Flute Player 5, Jasmine Grossman 2.

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