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Indians edge Otero, 65-64, in regular-season finale
The McCook Community College women held off Otero Saturday to close out the regular season with a 65-64 win, and now await final Region IX seeding to find out if they host a first-round game next weekend or wait two weeks to play in Casper, Wyo. MCC finished the Region IX South with a 6-4 mark and ended in a tie with Trinidad State. Western Nebraska finished as the top seed and the top two seeds in the north and south receive first-round byes in the tournament.
On Saturday MCC and OJC played to a 15-15 first-quarter tie. MCC led at the half 31-27, but trailed at the end of the third quarter 45-43 as the Lady Rattlers scored five points in the first 1:02 of the fourth quarter to take a 50-43 lead.
After nine turnovers in the first half MCC was held to five in the second half
“I think that turned it around for us, and when you’re not shooting the ball like you can, limiting turnovers is a huge thing for us.,” Pritchett said.
MCC out-scored Otero 22-19 in the fourth period as sophomore Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) scored 16 of her game-high 23 points in the second half to help charge up the offense.
“Vanessa got in rhythm today and got good shots,” Pritchett said.
Sophomore Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla, Spain) had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Sonia Sato (sophomore, El Paso, Texas) had nine points and 10 rebounds and Yzabelle Tevao (sophomore, Auckland, New Zealand) scored nine points.
“Carla had another double-double, She really rebounded well. Sonia rebounded well,” Pritchett said.
Sophomore Maite Lara Garcia (Sant Joan Despi, Spain) sat out the game having sustained a mild concussion Friday night. MCC lost Alyssa Van Vleet (sophomore, Oberlin, Kan.) with an ankle injury Tuesday in North Platte and several others remain injured.
“So we had to have some others step up,” Pritchett said, citing the work of sophomore Hanna Appelgren (Stockholm, Sweden) and Tavao.
“Hanna had another good game for us. Yzabelle came in and played really well and gave us nine points and was really effective,” Pritchett said. “That was the best game I’ve seen her have all year. She was really aggressive. If she plays like that she’s unstoppable, kind of un-guardable.”
“This was a really good win for us, being so short-handed today,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “We played better all the way around but it still wasn’t pretty.”
MCC shot 44.6 percent from the field, made four of 13 3-pointers (30.8 percent) and 11 of 18 free throws (61.1 percent)
Otero shot 45.3 percent for the game made nine of 23 3-pointers (39.1 percent) and seven of 17 free throws.
MCC out-rebounded OJC 33-29.
“It’s a team game and today we had other teammates step up and I’m really proud of them,” Pritchett said.
MCC finishes the regular season at 18-11. The Lady Rattlers go to (8-20, and 2-9).