Posted: Feb 07, 2020

Strong second half leads No. 3 Cougars past MCC 73-51

The McCook Community College women's basketball team held the third-ranked team in the nation to six points in the first quarter but Western Nebraska was too much in the second half and won their 19^th straight game to improve to 21-1 on the season with the 73-51 win.

MCC led 10-6 at the end of the first quarter and surrendered the lead with three minutes in the half but the Cougars ended the half with a 3-pointer to lead 29-24.

"I think our first half was probably some of the best defense we've played all year," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "To hold a high-power team like that to two field goals in the first quarter, we just defended really, really well, and need to continue to build on that."

Despite holding Western to 27.5 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes (11 of 40), and forcing nine turnovers, MCC could not take advantage of the opportunities in the offensive end making just eight of 25 shots (32 percent) in the first half and didn't catch fire in the second half.

"We've got to find our shot, we haven't shot the ball well recently and we have to find a rhythm," Pritchett said. "Western guards the ball well but our execution in the second half just wasn't here, we turned the ball over and that led to easy transition layups for them."

Western ramped it up from the field in the second half connecting on 18 of 35 shots (51.4 percent) and five of 10 3-point shots (50 percent).

MCC finished the game shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 17.6 percent from the 3-point line.

Freshman Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla Spain) led MCC scoring with 17 points and had six rebounds. Sophomore Makenna Bodette (Colorado Springs) had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

"I just saw a lot of good things for us in that first half, and I hope we can build on that," Pritchett said

MCC won the rebounding battle 47-43

Western Nebraska moves to 6-0 in the south sub-region. MCC falls to 16-7 and 3-4 in the Region IX south division. The Lady Indians are back in action Saturday taking on Central Community College at 2 p.m. for the annual Blue-Out game to bring attention to children with disabilities.

For complete coverage of MCC Lady Indian basketball including, schedule, photo galleries, statistics and more, visit the MCC Athletics web page at https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?tab=basketball2&path=wbball

If you can't make it to the games watch MCC basketball home games at https://mccindians.com/sports/2016/11/10/tw.aspx?tab=tribewatch

For more photos from tonight's game please visit the McCook Community College Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook/