Lancers send MCC Women to first loss with third quarter run

The McCook Community College women’s basketball team was unable to hold a 29-11 half-time lead Saturday and was outscored 55-32 in the second half of a 66-61 loss at home to Eastern Wyoming Community College.

 “We blew a huge opportunity,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “I told them after the first half that they were going to make changes and Eastern Wyoming make adjustments they needed to make and we just didn’t respond.”

The Lady Indians started the game having an easy time on the scoreboard mounting a 22-4 first-quarter lead. Both teams scored seven points in the second quarter.

“We escaped with two wins to start our season by doing just enough to win those games and then just expected the same thing was going to happen – especially after that first quarter,” said Pritchett. “I told them at half things were going to change and we had to be ready and it’s disappointment we didn’t make the adjustments and didn’t respond to their pressure.”

The Lancers cut the 18-point halftime deficit to 35-25 at the midway portion of the third period. MCC led 39-31 with 2:50 left in the quarter when Eastern Wyoming scored eight unanswered points over the next minute to tie the game 39 and the after three quarters, the teams were tied at 41-41.

MCC got a 3-pointer at the 7:49 mark from freshman Jada Kemm (Henderson, Colo.) and again with 6:49 left to put MCC up 49-43 but the Lancers got buckets on back-to-back possessions and took the lead for good with 6:30 left in the game and outscored MCC 16-12 over the final six minutes of the game.

The Lady Indians turned the ball over 25 times and made just 13 of 27 free throws (48.1 percent) while Eastern Wyoming had 22 turnovers but went 24 of 29 from the line (82.8 percent).

“25 turnovers today, 24 last night and averaging 23 a game is not going to get the job done, our guards have to do a better job,” said Pritchett. “And missing 14 free throws – you look at all the stats, turnovers, offensive rebounds – and the difference in the game was that they made 24 free throws, and we made 13 and left 14 points up on the board.”

The Lady Indians shot 44 percent from the field in the first half and 50 percent in the second half and finished at 46.7 percent and went six-for-21 from distance (28.6 percent).

Eastern Wyoming made just three of 28 first-half shots but hit 16 of 26 second-half field goals and finished at 34.5 percent for the game while making four of 13 3-pointers (30.8 percent).

MCC had a 36-30 rebound edge.

Sophomore Madara Liepniece (Riga, Latvia) led MCC with 13 points and freshman Peyton Cox (Wauneta-Palisade) had 12 points and led MCC with seven rebounds, hitting both her shots from the field and going eight-for-11 from the line.

“Peyton has been playing her tail off,” said Pritchett. “She doesn’t let anything phase her and we need everybody on that same page. She just goes out there and competes, doesn’t get pushed around and that’s what I loved about her when I recruited her.”

Freshman Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) had 11 points while sophomore Marta Moya Perez (Alboraya, Spain) had 10 points and five rebounds, hitting two of her 3-point shots. Kemm finished with six points, hitting both her 3-point shots in the fourth quarter.

Eastern Wyoming picks up their first win of the year and improve to 1-3.

MCC falls to 2-1 and have three more home games in the next 11 days to conclude its season-opening six-game homestand. On Tuesday MCC is home at 6 p.m. against Seward County. On Friday the Lady Indians play Concordia JV at 7 p.m. and Nov. 19 the Hastings College JV come to the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center for a 6 p.m. game.

“We’ll fix some things with a quick turnaround and Seward is probably going to be the toughest of these first four games so we have to learn from our mistakes,” said Pritchett.

Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com