First place MCC women win at NJC

STERLING, Colo. – The McCook Community College Lady Indians maintained their lead in the Region IX South standings Saturday with a 62-53 road win over Northeastern Junior College.

The Lady Indians scored the first eight points of the game, led 15-5 and held on for a 15-10 at the end of the first quarter. MCC hit three 3-pointers in the quarter.

“I felt we established ourselves early taking a solid lead in the first five or six minutes of the game,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “And we won each quarter except for the fourth, and that's something we have to do on the road to win in this region.”

The Plainswomen scored the first six points of the second quarter to take a 16-15 lead midway through the second period. Freshmen guards Marissa Evans (Barrow, United Kingdom) and Miah Wren (Rangely, Colo.) both hit 3-pointers late in the half to help MCC build a 34-26 lead at intermission.

The Lady Indians stretched the lead to 14 points – their largest lead of the game – with 6:30 left in the period, but the Plainswomen went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 40-36 near the 4:00 minute mark of the quarter. MCC was able to close out the period with a 9-1 run to lead 49-37 at the end of the third quarter.

MCC led 54-44 with 5:25 left in the game, but NJC cut the gap to 54-41 at the 2:47 mark. From that point, the Tribe ended the game with a 7-2 edge, as freshman Stephanie Nnabuihe (freshman, Newbridge, Ireland) took charge in the paint with five points as part of her 11-point, 18 rebound game.

“Stephanie had another big game for us in the paint and rebounding,” said Pritchett. “She's coming around and once we get her finishing everything at the rim, she'll be really tough to stop.”

Sophomore Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) led MCC with 13 points. She hit three of five shots from the 3-point line.

“Laia again shot the ball well, made a huge 3 in the fourth quarter to keep us in the lead,” said Pritchett.

Freshman Mar Molina Munoz (Parets del Valles, Spain) scored eight. She made four of seven shots from the field. Wren chipped in seven points and five rebounds.

A trio of Lady Indians scored four points each including: Carolina Garcia Perdomo (Islas Canarias, Spain), Jacelyn Jorgensen (Paxton), and Claudia Serrador Cortazar (Trapagaran, Spain). Evans and Jada Kemm (Henderson, Colo.) both hit 3-pointers for MCC.

The Lady Indians were without the services of sophomore Johanna Gerlach for this game.

“With Jojo out today, we had a trio of players step up with Jacelyn starting, Jada and Miah filling in some major minutes,” said Pritchett. “Miah shot the ball really well and did a solid job on the defensively.”

MCC shot 36.8 percent from the field, made seven of 23 shots from the 3-point arc (30.4 percent) and went 13 of 22 from the free-throw line (59.1 percent). The Lady Indians won the rebound battle 43-38 and turned the ball over nine times.

NJC shot 30.6 percent from the field, made seven of 28 from distance (25 percent) and made eight of 16 foul shots (50 percent). The Plainswomen turned the ball over six times.

The Plainswomen fall to 3-4 in Region IX South play and 7-16 overall.

Saturday’s game marks the half-way point of the 14-game Region IX South schedule. MCC improves to 6-1 (first place in the standings) and goes to 13-10 overall.

The Lady Indians will be home twice in the next week taking on Lamar on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center. On Saturday MCC hosts Southeast Community College with tipoff set for 2 p.m.

Lamar is the only team to beat MCC in region play so the Lady Indian’s look to avenge their 49-45 loss to the Runnin’ Lopes in Lamar on Jan. 21.

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