Lady Indians open season Saturday at home
Coach Brandon Pritchett returns six sophomores and brings in nine freshmen to form a squad he hopes will continue pushing toward the top of the Region IX landscape.
Last year, the Lady Indians were in first place in the Region IX South at the half-way mark of the season at 6-1, but a second half slump pushed MCC down to fourth out of the eight teams in the conference with an 8-6 conference record. That did earn the team a home game to start the Region IX Tournament and Pritchett’s team responded with a thrilling 63-62 win over Casper – a team that had won the previous four Region IX titles. The following week the season ended with a 65-60 loss in the quarterfinals against Western Wyoming. MCC finished at 16-16.
The coach said this fall, the focus has been honing the concepts and instilling the defensive philosophy while building the offensive chemistry. The team has four returning guards and two experienced posts.
“I think it’s wide open for everyone to come in and compete at a high level,” said Pritchett. “We’re deep this year, and that’s made our practices more competitive.”
Pritchett thinks this group can push the pace a little better than some of the teams in the past.
RETURNING GUARDS: Nevaeh Lucero (Thornton, Colo.) is a 5-3 combo guard who appeared in 22 games last year and averaged 4.8 points per game. She is coming off shoulder surgery at the end of May and returned to practice Oct. 1. Pritchett said Lucero has been working hard to get herself ready to go.
“She really changes things up for us from the leadership-side of things,” said Pritchett. “She has the ability to make plays and create shots for herself and others.”
Mar Molina Munoz (Parets del Valles, Spain) returns at the point guard slot where she started 30 of 32 games as a freshman, averaging 6.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals. She shot 35.5 percent from the field
“She has really worked hard to develop her outside shooting this year,” said Pritchett, who believes she’ll improve on her 30 percent 3-point clip as a freshman. “We’ve also challenged her to be able to use both hands. She worked hard over the summer, and I think she’ll play a big role in what we do both from a leadership and scoring standpoint.”
Miah Wren is a 5-5 shooting guard from Rangely, Colo. who appeared in 27 games last year and averaged 3.3 points per game and shot 51.7 percent from the 3-point line. She hit her first collegiate triple and made four of her first five including a three-for-four night from distance and six-for-six from the line in a season-high 15-point outing against her home-town Colorado Northwestern team last November.
“She’s one of the best shooters I’ve been able to coach, and she’s become even more confident in making shots and also focused in on the defensive end and getting better there,” said Pritchett
Marissa Evans, 5-8 from Barrow, United Kingdom played in 28 games and scored 49 points for the Lady Indians in 28 games, shooting 31.6 from the field and 32.4 from the 3-point line.
“Marissa’s a really good defender and shoots the ball really well too,” said Pritchett. “Between her and Miah the two of them are going to help us spread the floor.”
IN THE POST, the Lady Indians return 6-3 Claudia Serrador Cortazar (Trapagaran, Spain) and 6-0 Stephanie Nnabuihe (Newbridge, Ireland).
“Those two were really young last year and as freshmen and had to get thrown into the mix early and so our expectations are high this year with a lot of experience at that position,” said Pritchett.
Claudia Serrador Cortazar, 6-3 (Trapagaran, Spain) averaged 4.3 points and 3.7 rebounds, shooting 46.3 from the field.
“Claudia had an up-and-down freshman year, but she is going to play a bigger role for us this year,” said Pritchett.
Stephanie Nnabuihe is a 6-0 post from Newbridge, Ireland) who started nine games and played in 25 overall. She averaged 6.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. When conference play started, she averaged 6.9 points and 9.5 boards per game. For the season she snagged 97 offensive rebounds and 99 defensive rebounds.
“Stephanie had some challenges as a freshman but if we can keep her healthy, we’ll have two big-time players for us,” said Pritchett. “We’ll run a lot of things through them and they are two different types of players and that makes us unique with how we’ll play offensively.”
Nnabuine brings the rebounding and more physicality and Serrador Cortazar rebounds but is more on the finesse side, can shoot the ball from outside and also posts up.
“And they are both solid defenders and continue working hard to get better,” said Pritchett.
THE FRESHMEN: Redshirt freshman Delaney Myers showed up on campus her freshman year as a student manager for the volleyball team, assumed the same position with the women’s basketball team and then began practicing with the Lady Indians in the spring semester.
“She ended up earning herself a spot and I expect her to provide us with some important role minutes off the bench,” said Pritchett. “She can play multiple positions including the power forward spot and that is one of the positions where we graduated two players so she gives us some depth there.”
Two new point guards joined the squad as freshman: Brooklyn Gurbiel-Karemaker, 5-6, Chidlow, Australia and Berta Concernau Vert, 5-4, Barcelona, Spain.
“They’ll come in and give us time from that point-guard and they are two different types of players. They can both play fast, they post up, they both read the floor well and push the pace for us,” said Prithett. “Brooklyn guards really hard and is willing to mix it up and battle for rebounds,” he said.
“Shooting is the one thing I’ve tried to bring in for the past several years and these two have come in and shot the ball well this fall to help spread the floor and they can both defend,” said Pritchett. “3-and-D type players who can play both sides of the floor and play with pace.”
Incoming wing guards include Anastasia Labelle-Piskor, 5-8, Saint Amand Les Easux, France and combo guard Ada Yeung, 5-9 (Kowloon, Hong Kong), who brings versatility in the backcourt. Tracey Senga, 5-9, Paris, France brings wing depth as well as small forward depth.
“Tracey is a versatile player who may be a little undersized at the forward spot, but is physical enough and strong enough to rebound, body-up and get to the paint where she can be physical and she can shoot from outside as well,” said Pritchett.
In addition to Myers at forward, the coach brought in 5-10 Iraia Aduriz Marquez (Barcelona, Spain) and 5-10 Brylee Minnick a Decatur Community high school grad from Oberlin, Kan, and Paula Sanchez Rodriguez, 5-11, (Sevilla, Spain).
The coach is hopefully these players will fill the void left by graduation.
“Iraia is more of a driver-type, goes after rebounds and plays really hard,” said Pritchett. “And Brylee has been one that I was most surprised with our first pre-season games – she’s really come in with some confidence and I’m exited for her growth.”
The coach noted Minnick is a strong rebounder and will be able to play the post if needed.
“And Paula is our ‘Swiss Army knife’ with her length, size and athleticism will play multiple roles for us because she’s skilled, shoots the 3 well,” said Pritchett.
About this group of newcomers, the coach said he tried bringing in freshmen who were versatile, other than specifically recruiting point guards, he wanted the others to be able to play multiple positions and guard multiple positions and allow him to change things up.
THE SCHEDULE: Once again, Coach Pritchett has put together a nonconference schedule that will not be an easy one.
“These nonconference games are really going to challenge us, but we wanted to schedule these opponents so that our players understand what it’s like to compete with these high-level teams and the type of competition we’re going to face in our region,” said Prichett.
After the home opener Saturday against an experienced Frank Phillips team, the Lady Indians are on the road for a tough road venue at the “Greenhouse” in Liberal, Kan. Monday where they play Seward County. That’s followed with a Wyoming trip the second weekend of the season at Cheyenne, Wyo., against Laramie County CC and at Torrington, Wyo. to face Eastern Wyoming. On the third weekend MCC travels to Big Springs, Texas to play in the Howard Classic taking on the hosts (ranked 16th in the preseason poll) and Western Texas College. Those games will be Nov. 13-14.
MCC is home Nov. 17 to face Central Community College then head to Wyoming Nov. 20-21 to play two of the top teams in the Region IX North in Gillette College and Casper College in the Gillette Collete Classic.
The Lady Indians close out November hosting the MCC Thanksgiving Classic Nov. 27-28. Preseason No. 2 ranked New Mexico Junior College will be the first opponent in a Friday night matchup (7:30 p.m.) followed on Saturday with a 2 p.m. game against Concordia University JV.
“It’ll be great for those fans who are going to be around that Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend to see one of the top teams in the country and see how we match up,” said Pritchett
December’s schedule starts with three home games in the first week of the month starting with a Dec. 1 game against Hastings College JV (6 p.m.), and weekend games against Laramie County CC (Friday, 5:30 p.m.) and Eastern Wyoming (Saturday, 2 p.m.). The Lady Indians will close out the fall slate in Hobbs, N.M. for the New Mexico Junior College Classic Dec. 17-18. The Lady Indians play South Plains College (ranked No. 3 in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference preseason) and a second game against No. 2 New Mexico Junior College.
REGION IX SOUTH CONFERENCE: Pritchett sees a wide-open conference race, with south champs Lamar (12-2 last year in conference) looking to defend their first-place finish, as well second-place Western Nebraska (10-4) who has a new coach and a new group of players and third-place Otero (9-5). Fifth place North Platte (7-7) has a lot of roster turnover and sixth place NJC (5-9) has five returning starters. Seventh place Southeast CC (5-9) has a new team and Trinidad State (0-14) didn’t qualify for post season but returns a pair of experienced shooters.
“I just think it’s going to be a tightly-bunched race and it will come down to whoever can put together their group the best will be the frontrunners,” said Pritchett.
The conference schedule begins for MCC on Jan. 8-9 on the road against Trinidad State and Otero. The Lady Indians will play each of the seven conference teams both home and away. In January MCC has home games Jan. 13 against Lamar and Jan. 23 against Northeastern Junior College.
In February, the Lady Indians will play five of their seven conference games at home including: Feb. 6 vs. Southeast CC, Feb. 12 vs. Trinidad State, Feb. 13 vs. Otero, Feb. 17 vs. Western Nebraska, and the season finale Feb. 24 against North Platte.
POST-SEASON FORMAT CHANGE: The one major change in the post-season format is that top-teams will no longer host a first-round game. The tournament is now two “weekends” at a central site. This year the top seed from the north will host the top 14 teams in the first three rounds, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The top seeds from the north and south, will receive byes in the first two rounds and play in the Saturday game. The top seed from the south would host the final four the following week.
Pritchett said his team’s chances to contend for a title depends on several factors.
“We need to get sophomore leadership, we have to have our freshmen figure things out fast, we need to defend at a high level, and this is probably true of most teams, but we need to stay healthy,” said Pritchett.
Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com