Wiehl scores 27, leads WNCC over EWC

Wiehl scores 27, leads WNCC over EWC

                TORRINGTON, Wyo. – Merle Wiehl scored 27 points and the Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team won their eighth straight in handing Eastern Wyoming College its first loss of the season with an 82-63 win Friday at Torrington, Wyoming.

                The win was the ninth of the season for the Cougars to two defeats while the Lancers dropped to 9-1.

                "That was a big win for us tonight," Wiehl said. "Against a team in our league that was 9-0 to set a tone for what it is like to play us. It was a good game and a great win."

                Wiehl said a big key in the win was how they played as a team and played well defensively.

                "The biggest key for our win tonight was that we played as one unit and played as a team throughout the whole 40 minutes," she said. "We did a good job defensively holding them in the 60s which is 20-plus points below their average which is good."

                A big reason for the win was WNCC's depth in scoring. Four players finished in double figures.

                Wiehl had the hot hand on the day leading all scorers with 27 points on 11 of 17 shooting from the field, including four 3-pointers. Tishara Morehouse chipped in 16 points with two treys, while R'Manie Pulling had 11 points while Joplin had 10 points.

                "We know when we share the ball, we get open looks," Wiehl said. "We did not shoot the ball as well tonight, but we worked our way around that and through sharing the ball we got different options where we scored."

                WNCC had a strong first quarter, doubling the score on the Lancers at 20-10 before Tishara Morehouse and Wiehl buried back-to-back 3-pointers for a 26-15 lead after one.

                Both teams played the second quarter even with WNCC outscoring the Lancers 17-16 to hold a 41-32 at intermission.

                The second half was where the Cougars put some distance between them, holding a double-digit for most of the final two quarters. EWC did cut the lead to nine, 51-42, but WNCC came back for a 7-0 run to push the score to 58-42 and led 62-48.

                Shooting was a big difference in the contest. WNCC shot 44 percent from the field and made 8 of 30 3-pointers. EWC shot 35 percent from the field and were 5 of 21 from beyond the arc.

                WNCC also held the rebounding edge 40-23. Wiehl finished with a double-double on the day, leading the team from the class with 12 boards. Taylor Joplin also pulled down nine boards.

                EWC had just one player in double figures as Abril Rezach Roure had 14 points.

                WNCC will be back in action next Friday when they travel to Powell, Wyoming, to face Northwest College before wrapping up the first semester December 14-15 at the Sheridan Tournament.

                EWC will look to get back on the winning track when they host Air Force Prep on Tuesday before traveling to face McCook and North Platte next weekend.

 

WNCC (9-2)         26 15 21 20 – 82

EWC (9-1)            15 17 16 15 – 63

WNCC

Tishara Morehouse 16, Merle Wiehl 27, Allysah Boothe 5, Andrijana Reljic 2, R'Manie Pulling 11, Eva Langton 4, Yuliyana Valcheva 7, Taylor Joplin 10.

EWC

Abril Rexach Roure 14, Ins Salat Margarit 7, Morning Gambler 3, Macie Mackey 4, Emily Buchanan 8, Kelli Raff 3, Nicole Cutler 4, Barbara Trehub 2, Paula Martinez Sanz 18.