MCC women start region 3-0 with win over Lamar

The McCook Community College women are off to a 3-0 start in Region IX south play with a 72-63 win Tuesday over Lamar Community College in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

The Lady Indians extended a 33-26 half-time lead to 19 points early in the fourth quarter and held off the Runnin’ Lopes down the stretch.

“We’re getting better and that’s what I want from this group,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “We got better from the early semester games at Casper, we got better since the start of this past weekend, and we got better tonight.”

Three Lady Indians scored in double-figures including starters Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) with 14 points and redshirt sophomore Natalie Harmata (Sydney, Australia) with 12 points. Freshman Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) came off the bench to score 14.

Sophomore transfer Irene Fernandez Pavesio (Miami-Dade, Asturias, Spain) led MCC with seven rebounds and scored nine points while sophomore

Sophomore Madara Liepniece (Riga, Latvia) scored eight points and led the team with four assists.

Freshman Peyton Cox (Wauneta-Palisade HS) scored seven points off the bench with five boards.

“We had players step up again, with 12 points from Natalie and three people in double-figures and Madra and Irene with eight and nine and Payton right there too,” said Pritchett. “We have some players who can step up and others that will continue to improve and help us because we need that depth.”

MCC shot 39.7 percent from the field, made six of 16 shots from the 3-point line (37.5 percent) and went 20-for-28 from the line (71.4 percent). The Lady Indians out-rebounded LCC 42-36 and turned the ball over 20 times.

“Obviously we have to take better care of the ball, but we shot better from the 3-point line and that has been an emphasis all week,” said Pritchett. “The second half, I thought we could have drove a time or two, but we shot better from the free-throw line and kept them off the offensive glass.”

Lamar shot 35.5 percent from the floor, went four of 17 from distance (23.5 percent) and made 15 of 21 free throws (71.4 percent). The Lopes committed 16 turnovers.

“I’m proud of this group so we’ll double prepare for Southeast on Sunday and turn right around with Western on Tuesday,” said Pritchett.

Lamar falls to 7-12 and 1-1 in the Region IX south standings.

MCC improves to 12-8 and 3-0 in the region standings.

The Lady Indians are back in Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference play Sunday at home against Southeast Community College. Tip-off is at 2 p.m. The Bobcats are 8-12, losing to North Platte Tuesday 65-50 in their first NCCAC game.

MCC leads the NCCAC at 3-0.

The homestand continues Jan. 28 against Western Nebraska, a game that starts at 5:30 p.m.

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