‘Runnin Lopes’ overtake MCC Women late

LAMAR, Colo. – The Lamar Community College women wrestled away a 49-45 win in the final minute of play Wednesday over McCook Community College.

The loss was the first in Region IX South play for MCC.

The game was late in starting because of clock and horn issues and helped lead to a ragged beginning to the game. No statistics were available for the game.

"We came out and played hard in the first quarter even with everything going on," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "But then we got into foul trouble."

Sophomores Carolina Garcia Perdomo (Islas Canarias, Spain) and Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) both had to sit out with foul trouble, as the Runnin' Lopes took a 20-18 lead just under five minutes left in the second quarter.

MCC went on a 9-0 run capped by a 3-pointer from sophomore Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) with time expiring to give the Lady Indians a 27-20 lead at intermission.

"I thought we finished the half well, and Laia hit a big three going into the half," said Pritchett.

Lamar wrestled back the lead at the end of the third quarter 32-31. The score remained close throughout the fourth quarter.

"In the second half we had a lot of the same issues with the foul calls that put us in a tough spot match up wise," said Pritchett.

Garcia Perdomo hit a 3-pointer for MCC with 1:45 left in the game to give the Lady Indians a 42-41 lead.

With :48 seconds left in the game Lamar was able to score the tying point on the front end of a two-shot free throw then went up for good with an offensive rebound off the miss on the second free-throw to lead 44-42.

"At the end I thought we excuted great and got the shots we wanted," said Pritchett. "We just missed a couple shots and failed to box out of a free throw."

Another 3-pointer from Garcia Perdomo cut the MCC deficit to 46-45 with :23 seconds left. Lamar hit three of six free throws in the final 23 seconds of the game to secure the win.

Lamar improves to 10-5 on the season and goes to 2-1 in the Region IX standings.

MCC falls to 10-10 and takes their first Region IX loss to fall to 3-1.

"We'll work on this as we prepare for another tough road game at Southeast Saturday," said Pritchett.

The Lady Indians travel to Lincoln Saturday for a 2 p.m. game against Southeast Community College (2-14, 0-2). MCC will be home for a critical game Jan. 28 against Western Nebraska (13-6, 3-0) tipping off at 5:30 p.m.