Lady Indians push past Bulldogs 67-49

The McCook Community College women snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday with a 67-49 win over the Concordia University Junior Varsity.

“This was a good Concordia team, and they brought all their players and a couple girls down from varsity. They’ve averaged 95 points against three JUCO teams,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “And I thought we played really hard to limit them on the defensive end.”

The Lady Indians held the Bulldogs to 26.8 shooting from the field (21.4 percent in the second half) and 28.6 percent from the 3-point line with an eight-for-28 showing.

“Eight made 3-pointers would be a lot for us but that’s about half of what they’ve been averaging so I was pleased with that,” said Pritchett.

“Rebounding has been good for us and I thought we did a great job again on the boards tonight,” said Pritchett

MCC out-rebounded the Bulldogs 49-16 with freshman point guard Mar Molina Munoz (Parets del Valles, Spain) leading the way with 12 boards including four on the offensive side. Sophomore Miriam Wahlqvist (Helsingborg, Sweden) collected seven rebounds and sophomores Jada Kemm (Henderson, Colo.) and Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) both grabbed six.

“Mar having 12 rebounds from the point-guard spot is huge for us so we can push the ball, and I think tonight we finally set a precedent on who we want to be,” said Pritchett.

MCC outscored Concordia 19-13 in the first quarter but the Bulldogs won the second quarter battle 15-13 to close to 32-28 at intermission.

“We had a little lull there for a while but bounced back and executed in that second half,” said Pritchett.

The Lady Indians pulled away in the third quarter, enjoying a 21-7 advantage. Both teams scored 14 points in the fourth quarter.

MCC shot 48.4 percent from the field but only made three of 18 triples (16.7 percent). The Lady Indians turned the ball over 25 times and made four of nine free throws (44.4 percent).

“We didn’t shoot the ball well from 3, but that’s something we’ll come back in the gym and work on,” said Pritchett. “I think we settled for too many 3s in the first half and once we got to the paint and attacked we ended up making some baskets to get our offense going.”

Sophomore Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) led MCC with 16 points. She made seven of eight shots from the field.

“Laia shot the ball well, and we talked to her about her shooting percentage and taking good shots and finishing at the rim and she did a good job responding to that challenge,” said Pritchett.

Gerlach scored 12 points. Munoz and sophomore Carolina Garcia Perdomo (Islas Canarias, Spain) each scored nine points. Wahlqvist scored six and freshman Stephanie Nnabuihe (Newbridge, Ireland) scored six points off the bench.

MCC improves to 3-5. The Lady Indians are home again Saturday at 2 p.m. when they host Central Wyoming (3-3) from the Region IX North division.

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