MCC women open region play with road win
La JUNTA, Colo. – The McCook Community College women snapped a five-game losing streak to open Region IX South play Friday on the road with a 56-51 win over Otero College.
“It's nice to get back in the win column. Especially on the road in our first region game of the season,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “It wasn't a pretty game, but we gutted it out in the end.”
The teams were tied at 23 at halftime and the one-win Otero team kept pace with MCC. The Lady Indians leading after three quarters 36-33. While the game was close throughout, the Rattlers trailed for 32.16 minutes in the game and their only lead of two points came in the opening minute of the game.
The Lady Indians got 14 points off the bench from freshman Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) who was clutch from the free-throw line late as MCC was able to pull out a tight game late. MCC hit five of their 11 3-pointers in the game to fend off the Rattlers
“Otero made some big threes, especially in that fourth quarter,” said Prichett. “We shot the ball slightly better tonight, but really attacked and got to the free throw line.”
Gerlach went four-for-eight from the field and six-for-six from the line to aid the MCC cause.
“Jojo (Johanna) made four big free throws in the second half and came up with some timely baskets for us,” said Pritchett.
Sophomore Madara Liepniece (Riga, Latvia) also scored 14 points for the Lady Indians. Irene Fernandez Pavesio (sophomore, Asturias, Spain) led team with 10 rebounds.
Sophomore Natalie Harmata (Sydney, Australia) scored eight points with four boards and made two of her three 3-point shots. Freshman Carolina Garcia Perdomo (Islas Canarias, Spain) scored seven points with six rebounds and freshman Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) chipped in six points and five boards.
“Nat hit some shots, and Carol was solid all the way around for us,” said Pritchett.
MCC shot 40 percent from the field, made four of 14 from distance (28.6 percent) and made 16 of 24 foul shots (66.7 percent). The Lady Indians held a 36-22 edge in rebounding
Otero shot 30 percent from the field, made 11 of 39 shots from the 3-point line and just four of seven shots from the free-throw line. The Rattler bench outscored MCC 27-18 and took advantage of 28 Lady Indian turnovers and converted them into 31 points.
“We need to clean up the turnovers for tomorrow against a Trinidad team that will push the ball,” said Pritchett. “I'm proud of this group tonight, but we need to keep push ourselves and each other to get better tomorrow.”
Otero goes to 1-18 on the season.
MCC improves to 10-8 and will take on Trinidad State (1-14) in Trinidad, Colo. Saturday.
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