McCook entered Saturday's contest 13-0 after beating Eastern Wyoming College 64-62 on Friday. McCook drops to 3-1 on South play and 13-1 overall, while WNCC is 2-0 in the conference. It was the Cougars 12th win of the season as they enter the semester break at 12-2 and riding a five-game winning streak, the longest in Region IX.
Kalli Feddersen, who eight points, five rebounds and four assists, said this was a big win for the team – a win that they knew what they needed to do and they went out and got the job done.
"We worked together more and we came into the game knowing we had to get this done," the sophomore from Rawlins, Wyoming, said. "We started right from the top. We knew what we needed to do and we took care of business. There is always room for improvement. We still have things wo work on so we will learn from this and we are happy we got the win."
The first quarter is where the Cougars won the contest with efficient shooting and strong defense. After WNCC held a 5-4 lead, the Cougars went on a 11-0 run to lead 16-4 and led 23-12 after one period.
Feddersen said the first quarter set the tone for the rest of the contest.
"That first quarter we knew what we needed to do," she said. "We just went out there and put it all together. The first quarter set the tone for the rest of the game. The Casper game where we were down by 16 in the first quarter and we had to climb back so instead, we went out and set the pace for the game."
After a strong first quarter, the second quarter was won by McCook 11-10 and the Indians did slice the lead to six, 27-21, but WNCC regrouped to take a 33-23 lead into halftime
WNCC came out of the locker room in the third and quickly built a 15-point lead, 40-25, on a Seynep Canbaz trey and a bucket by Sladjana Rakovic. WNCC went on to lead 48-33 after three periods.
McCook opened the fourth with five straight points to slice the lead to 10 points. WNCC regrouped and went on a 12-2 on six points by Ozge Yarga to lead 60-40 with four minutes to play. McCook scored the next six points, but WNCC closed out the game with six points as Paulson was a perfect 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
Shooting was a big key in the contest as WNCC shot 42 percent and was 9 of 15 from the charity stripe, while McCook was just 24 percent from the field and 21 of 34 from the stripe.
WNCC also out-rebounded McCook 45-36 with Rakovic cleaning the class with 10 boards followed by five from Feddersen and Mikayla Gonzales.
WNCC had just one player in double figures with Canbaz' 13 points. Paulson finished with nine points, while Feddersen, Rakovic, and Yarga each had eight points.
WNCC will be back in action Jan. 8 and 9 when they travel to Northeastern Junior College and Lamar after the semester break.
Feddersen said the win before the break was key.
"Getting this win before break was the main thing," she said. "We focused on that and that is what we did."
McCook (13-1) 12 11 10 13 – 46
WNCC (12-2) 23 10 15 18 – 66
MCCOOK
Taylor Acosta 3, Inga Kot 3, Kylee Barry 1, Lucia Archuleta 3, Chante Church 9, Kendra Baucom 11, Brooksie McWilliams 12, Jovanna Jovovic 2, Sofija Pejcic 2.
WNCC
Kalli Feddersen 8, Sladjana Rakovic 8, Hannah Sparks 3, Ozge Yarga 8, Oleida DeLeon 6, Zeynep Canbaz 13, Bree Paulson 9, Rylee Ward 1, Mikayla Gonzalez 6, Myram Garcia 4.