Lady Indians’ comeback falls short in Wyoming
CASPER, Wyo. – The McCook Community College women overcame a 19-point third-quarter deficit to take a pair of late fourth-quarter leads but came up short Friday against Western Wyoming 67-66. The thriller came in the first game of the Casper Thanksgiving Classic at Swede Erickson Gym.
After the two teams battled to a 14-14 first-quarter tie, Western Wyoming went on a 19-1 run over the first 6:50 of the second period to lead 33-15 and held a 37-23 half-time lead.
“One bad quarter forced us to have to play comeback again,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “You want to win each quarter, but that's difficult to do. We absolutely cannot lose quarters 9-23 against good teams.”
The Lady Mustangs took their largest lead of the game (19 points) just 51 seconds into the third quarter, but that’s when the Lady Indian resolve kicked in.
“We fought hard in the second half and chipped away one possession at a time,” said Pritchett.
The Lady Indians took a 22-15 advantage in the third period to close the gap to 52-45.
In the fourth quarter, sophomore Carolina Garcia Perdomo (Islas Canarias, Spain) hit a 3-pointer with 3:53 left in the game to give the Lady Indians their first lead since the first quarter, 61-60. She hit another 3-pointer with 27.3 left in the game to give MCC a 66-65 lead.
After Western Wyoming hit an inside layup to lead 67-66 with 14.9 left, MCC had the chance to win the game, but a Lady Mustang steal ultimately sealed the team’s sixth win of the season, to improve to 6-3.
“We took the lead a couple times in those last several minutes but Western Wyoming executed a big plan to go up, and we didn't execute on our end and turned it over,” said Pritchett. “We'll work on those things. We need to improve in those pressure situations.”
After shooting 23.3 percent in the first half and making three of nine triples the Lady Indians picked up the offensive focus in the second half shooting 44.7 percent from the field and making six of 13 shots from the 3-point line.
“We shot the ball well from 3,” said Pritchett. “Carol made big shots for us against their zone.”
Perdomo finished the game making four of seven shots from the arc for 12 points. Sophomore Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) also made three triples (in nine attempts) and scored 14 points with six rebounds.
MCC got a combined 27 points from a pair of freshmen off the bench and held a 29-6 edge in bench points. Freshman Stephanie Nnabuihe (Newbridge, Ireland) led MCC with 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Nevaeh Lucero (Thornton, Colo.) scored 11 points and made two of four shots from the 3-point line.
“Stephanie was really big for us off the bench with a double-double,” said Pritchett. “Keeping her healthy is key for the reminder of the year as she changes things on both ends of the floor when she's in.”
The Lady Indians held a 45-28 rebounding edge in the game.
“We rebounded the ball offensively really well, but we didn't convert around the basket like we needed to,” said Pritchett.
Western Wyoming shot 49 percent from the field and matched MCC from the 3-point line making nine of 22 triples (40.9 percent).
MCC falls to 4-6 as the team takes on the tournament hosts Saturday at 5 p.m. Casper, ranked 23rd in this week’s Top 25 poll, was 7-1 before their game Friday against Dawson Community College. The T-Birds record includes a 67-66 win over MCC Nov. 8 in the McCook Classic.
Coach Pritchett’s squad will continue the stretch of six-straight road games next week in Wyoming and later in New Mexico Dec. 12-13 before one final home prior to the holiday break. The Lady Indians will host Gillette College Dec. 16 at 4 p.m.
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