Strong fourth quarter pushes Casper women past MCC
CASPER, Wyo. – The No. 23 Casper College women outscored McCook Community College 24-13 in the final quarter Saturday to pull out a 70-53 win in the final game of the Casper Thanksgiving Classic.
“We just didn't come ready to play today, and Casper did,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “We had a nice second quarter where we really executed offensively and made plays.”
The T-Birds led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter before MCC responded with a 22-15 edge in the second quarter to close the halftime gap to 31-30.
“The second half started off well and then Casper made adjustments,” said Pritchett said. “We mentally just didn't have it tonight, and that just can't happen for us to be successful.”
Casper held a 46-40 at the end of the third quarter before putting away the Lady Indians for the second time this season.
Freshman Stephanie Nnabuihe (Newbridge, Ireland) led MCC offensively with 12 points and grabbed five rebounds.
“I thought we had some freshman play well for us tonight. Stephanie in her first start had another solid performance,” said Pritchett. “She starting assert herself more and more.”
Mar Molina Munoz (freshman, Parets del Valles, Spain) scored 11 points with four rebounds and freshman Marissa Evans (Barrow, United Kingdom) came off the bench to score seven points.
“Mar played much better tonight, making plays for her teammates and rebounding,” said Pritchett. “And Marissa came off the bench and showed much better confidence on both ends.”
Sophomore Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) scored seven points with four rebounds and Miriam Wahlqvist (sophomore, Helsingborg, Sweden) scored six points and grabbed five boards.
MCC shot 40 percent from the field and made four of eight triples. The Lady Indians went nine-for-14 from the free-throw line (64.3 percent) and won the rebound battle 33-29.
Casper shot 45.5 percent from the field, made four of 14 shots from the 3-point arc and went 16-for-21 from the charity stripe (76.2 percent). The Thunderbirds converted 20 MCC turnovers into 25 points.
The T-Birds improve to 8-1 and sweep the season series having topped MCC 67-66 in the MCC Classic Nov. 8win over MCC Nov. 8 in the McCook Classic.
The Lady Indians go to 4-7 on the year.
MCC will continue their stretch of six-straight road games with another trip to Wyoming next weekend against Eastern Wyoming and Laramie County Community College and 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