No. 20 NJC top MCC women 66-55

The No. 20 Northeastern Junior College women downed McCook Community College 66-55 at the Peter and Dolores Graff Evens Center Tuesday.

“It’s disappointing that we didn’t play better at home against a ranked team that’s good,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “There’s no doubt they are good.”

The Plainswomen took a 17-11 first quarter lead.

“I thought we came out with a solid five-to-seven minutes to start the game,” said Pritchett. “But after that we just played in spurts.”

NJC doubled up on MCC in the second quarter 16-8 to lead at the half 33-19 the MCC came out with a 20-17 edge in the third quarter. Both teams scored 16 fourth-quarter points.

The Lady Indians turned the ball 20 times.

“I thought we played well defensively against them, and held them to five offensive rebounds in the first half and they had two possessions where they had two offensive rebounds in a row,” said Pritchett.

“We give up seven in the second half and turn the ball over 20 times. That’s a lot of empty possessions.”

MCC shot just 23.1 percent from the floor in the first half and finished the game at 29.3 percent. From the arc the Lady Indians made six of 15 shots (40 percent) and went 15 of 21 from the line (71.4 percent).  MCC entered the game as the nation’s third best free-throw shooting team. The Lady Indians only had four assists in the game.

“Four assists for a team that averages 14 a game means we just didn’t’ share the ball,” said Pritchett. “We didn’t pass. We didn’t make the shots, and we were passive.”

The Plainswomen shot 34.3 percent from the field, made 10 of 29 3-pointers (34.5 percent) and made eight of 16 free throws. NJC outrebounded MCC 47-44.

“We just need to be more aggressive on our shots and we didn’t finish at the rim or finish through contact,” said Pritchett.

Sophomore Gemma Gruettner Bacoul (Berlin, Germany) led MCC with 17 points. Audra Vine (sophomore Thornton, Colo.) added 15 points and sophomore Suzan Sisman (Aarhus, Denmark) added nine.

Rebecca Dunn (sophomore, Colorado Springs, Colo.) topped MCC on the boards with eight. Sisman picked up six.

“Audra’s been shooting well as of late but we need some of the others to step up too,” said Pritchett. “We can’t have just one person each night step up and play well, we need consistency among multiple players.”

NJC improves to 21-2 and 3-0 in the Region IX south division.

MCC falls to 11-9 and 2-2 in the south region.

The region grind continues Friday as the Lady Indians travel to Scottsbluff to take on 18-3 Western Nebraska (3-0 in the south standings).

“They are going to be tough and be even more physical than NJC was tonight and we have to be mentally prepared for that,” said Pritchett.

MCC is home Tuesday (Jan. 30) at 5:30 p.m. against North Platte.

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