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McCook women hand WNCC 1st loss on the court
Tuesday, Feb. 19, might be recorded as one of the biggest wins in McCook Community College women's basketball history.
The Lady Indians ran to a 68-51 victory over Western Nebraska Community College of Scottsbluff in a Region IX South Sub-Region contest at the MCC Events Center.
McCook picked up its 22nd win of the season, with two more regular-season contests to go before the sub-region tournament in early March. More importantly, Tuesday marked the first time this season that the WNCC women have lost a game on the court. Technically, the Lady Cougars came into Tuesday's game undefeated in 27 starts. But the Scottsbluff team was forced to forfeit 13 wins from early in the season due to an ineligible player.
McCOOK INTERIM head coach Kylee Rinehart was ecstatic about her team's huge win.
"Western Nebraska is a phenomenal team. Dave Harnish is one of those acclaimed coaches across the nation," Rinehart said. "To come in here an undefeated team, our girls, they weren't pressured up about it -- I felt like I was going to throw up."
Rinehart said her team didn't get rattled with miscues, but instead focused on the next play.
"They just played so well. We still had quite a few mistakes," Rinehart said. "But the fact of the matter is, we went through one mistake and put it 10 miles underneath us and went to the next play. It didn't matter if we missed the rebound, missed the shot, had a bad pass, it was all about the next play. They proved that they are a good team.
"I could not be more proud of these girls. They played so stinking good, that was fun all the way through. There was not a moment of 'lack' -- which was huge for us. We didn't have that low spurt that we normally do."
A SCORING SPREE midway through the first half proved key for the Lady Indians.
Shelby Hemmann started the 13-4 run with a 3-pointer from the right corner to put McCook ahead 18-12. Mikaila Newton knocked down another 3-pointer a couple minutes later. Amir Davis tipped the ball away from Western and saved the ball from going out of bounds by flipping the ball to Sydney Young for a layup and a 28-15 MCC lead with six minutes left in the half.
Western Nebraska cut the lead to 32-27 at halftime, but McCook sprinted back to a double-digit cushion with an 8-1 run to open the second half. MCC used another 8-0 run to take a 48-30 advantage with 12 minutes remaining. WNCC got within 13 points, but MCC answered several minutes later with a three-point play by Hemmann and a outback by Tiffani Lewis to take the biggest lead of the contest, 60-39, with six minutes to go.
Hemmann led the winners with 24 points. Akia Davis had 13 points and Newton added 12. Western was led by Gritt Ryder with 10 points.
The Lady Indians helped hold WNCC to 32.7-percent field goal shooting (16 for 49). McCook hit 25 of 47 shots from the floor for 53.2 percent.
The MCC women improved to 6-5 in sub-region play, while Western Nebraska dropped to 10-1. McCook is third in the sub-region standings behind WNCC and Eastern Wyoming (8-3).
THE WNCC WOMEN will host the Region IX Tournament March 3-7, with the winner advancing to the National Junior College Athletic Association national tournament.
The Lady Indians won't look ahead to the region tournament with two big games left. MCC travels to Sterling, Colo. Friday, Feb. 22, to battle Northeastern Junior College. Northeastern is 3-7 in the sub-region, and Coach Rinehart wants her team to keep momentum rolling heading into the regional competition.
"You definitely can't count your eggs before your chicken has them," Rinehart said. "This team understands that it's nose to the grindstone. They're a team that wants to compete and wants to fight. When we go to Sterling, we have to have our game on."
McCook ends the regular season Monday, Feb. 25, with a trip to Columbus to meet Central Community College in a Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference battle. MCC is 5-0 in league play and hopes to wrap up an undefeated conference season with a win next Monday.