MCC women top Gillette to close out semester
The McCook Community College Lady Indians basketball team posted a 74-68 win over Gillette College Tuesday afternoon at home to wrap up the fall semester of play.
The Lady Indians got hot from the 3-point line in the second quarter and stretched a 15-14 first-quarter lead to a 42-32 advantage at halftime then withstood a strong charge from the Pronghorns in the second half.
“After we hit seven 3-pointers in the first half, that brought their defense out in the second half and that allowed us to get into our man-to-man offense,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “So it allowed us to execute two different styles of offense each half.”
MCC hit seven 3-pointers in the first half and only one in the second half but got downhill and after getting to the free-throw line just twice in the first half, went to the line 20 times in the second half.
“Now we only went 11 of 22 from the free-throw line and should have put the game away at the line but I’m proud of how we defended, how we guarded,” said Pritchett.
While the coach said his team give up too many offensive rebounds (nine) he was happy the team stayed tough when the game got tight.
Gillette got as close as 50-47 with 4:04 left in the third period. It was a 59-53 game after three quarters but an early Pronghorn basket in the fourth quarter cut MCC’s lead to four points, but that’s as close as Gillette got.
“We didn’t falter. We took some punches and fought back,” said Pritchett. “And we haven’t done that in other games and that’s why we lost some of those close games, but it was good to close this game out against a really solid Gillette team.”
Sophomore Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) led MCC with 22 points with three 3-pointers. Freshman Mar Molina Munoz (Parets del Valles, Spain) put in 13 points while freshman Claudia Serrador Cortazar (Trapagaran, Spain) scored 10 points. Stephanie Nnabuihe (freshman, Newbridge, Ireland) led MCC with five rebounds and scored four points.
“Laia made some big shots, Mar made some big shots, Claudia made some big shots and was tough in the lane and Steph came in and rebounded well for us near the end of the game,” said Pritchett.
Sophomore, Peyton Cox (Wauneta-Palisade High School) saw her first action of the season after missing the first 15 games because of injury. She scored two points and had one rebound with two fouls. Her basket came near the start of the fourth quarter when Gillette had pulled to within 59-55 with 9:44 left to play. It gave MCC a 61-55 lead.
“And it was good to see Peyton back on the floor,” said Pritchett. “Obviously she has to stay out of foul trouble and it was exciting to see her back and Stephanie missed a couple games so it was good to see her back as well.”
Sophomore Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) hit a couple 3-pointers and made both her free throws for eight points and sophomore Jada Kemm (Henderson, Colo.) scored five points off the bench.
Gillette goes to 8-6. This was the second of three games in four days against teams in Region IX South. They began their four-day road trip Sunday in Scottsbluff with a 71-62 loss to Western Nebraska and finish the trip in North Platte Wednesday afternoon.
MCC closes out the semester at 7-9. Six of those nine losses came to teams either currently ranked in the NJCAA Top 25 polls, previously ranked and one team (Western Wyoming) that is currently receiving Top 25 votes.
The Lady Indians turn their attention to the Region IX South when they return to the court Jan. 10 in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center to face North Platte in a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. All remaining games will be against teams in the south region.
Up-to-date information about MCC women’s basketball including livestream links for home games, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com