Lady Indians hold off Colorado Northwestern 66-55

The McCook Community College women built a comfortable lead through three quarters Friday and then held on for a 66-55 win over Colorado Northwestern in the McCook Classic, held in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

“We played a really, good first three quarters. I thought we guarded well, and really played well,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett.

MCC outscored the team from Rangely, Colo. 52-27 through the first three quarters but the Spartans went on a 22-7 run to cut the lead to 59-50 with 1:40 remaining before MCC iced the game at the free-throw line late.

“We played some different lineups in the fourth quarter to put some of our younger players in pressure situations, and we struggled a little bit there in the fourth quarter but we fought through those struggles and I’m proud of them,” said Pritchett.

The Lady Indians got up 15-10 to end the first quarter and led at the half 30-17. MCC held the Spartans to 25 percent shooting from both the field and the 3-point line in the first half while shooting 40-7 percent on the offensive end.

Freshman Miah Wren, freshman, from Rangely High School, hit three of four triples in the game and tied for a team-best 15 points on the night. She scored 12 of those points in the second half and went six-for-six from the free-throw line.

“We had some balanced scoring, Miah came in and shot it well from three and that’s what my expectations for her have been, she made all six of her free throws and did some really good things for us,” said Pritchett.

Sophomore Carolina Garcia Perdomo (freshman, Islas Canarias, Spain) also had 15 points and went five-for-eight at the free-throw line with and five rebounds. Freshman Mar Molina Munoz (Parets del Valles, Spain) scored 10 points.

“Carol missed a few free throws but came in late in the game and hit some when we needed them to really seal it for us,” said Pritchett.

Sophomore Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) had nine points and nine rebounds. Stephanie Nnabuihe (freshman, Newbridge, Ireland) had nine boards and five points while sophomore Miriam Wahlqvist ( Helsingborg, Sweden) chipped in four points with eight rebounds.

Freshman Kesli Cox (Hayes Center) saw her first action of the season, playing 8:30 and scored her first three points of the season.

“Kesli hasn’t played a game all year and played a lot in the fourth quarter and it forced her into some pressure situations to be able to do some things for us but I thought she did a really good job with taking that on,” said Pritchett.

MCC shot 37.5 percent from the field, made five of 17 triples (29.4 percent) and went 19 of 28 from the free-throw line (67.9 percent. The Lady Indians turned the ball over 28 times.

“We have to eliminate the turnovers,” said Pritchett. “That can’t be our Achilles heel this year and I don’t think Northwestern put a ton of pressure on us until the end of the game. We just made a lot of careless mistakes because we’re not confident, but that will change.”

The Lady Indians outrebounded Colorado Northwestern 49-20, including 16 on the offensive end.

“Getting 16 offensive rebounds is something I think we can continue to do every night,” said Pritchett. “We have to shoot the ball and hopefully don’t have to have 16 offensive rebound opportunities but that’s something we’re going to have to do well Saturday against Casper.”

Colorado Northwestern shot 30.2 percent for the game, made eight of 24 shots from distance (33.3 percent) and went 15 of 21 from the line (71.4 percent).

The Spartans go to 0-3 with a five-point loss opening night in Scottsbluff to Western Nebraska (61-56) and a blowout loss to No. 4 Dodge City 96-41. They play North Platte at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

MCC improves to 2-2 and will take on 2-0 Casper College Saturday at 3 p.m. in the final game of the McCook Classic. The Thunderbirds downed North Platte 66-37 in the opening game of the MCC Classic Friday. North Platte is 0-3 on the year.

“We get a chance to play a really good Casper team and see how we stack up with a team in the north division of our region,” said Pritchett.

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