The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team played strong defense in opening the season with a 74-30 win over the Nebraska All-stars Wednesday night at Cougar Palace.
The win gave an indication of what the Cougars need to work on for the games this weekend, including a match-up with Gillette College on Saturday. Gillette College won the regional title a year ago.
What was impressive about the Cougars win on Wednesday was their defensive intensity.
Deniz Dalkiran, who led the team with 10 rebounds while pouring in 10 points, said strong defense helps the offense.
"We did really well on defense," the freshman from Turkey said. "We talked with each other and we did the switches. Also, we came from the help side and these things helped us to hold them to 30 points."
The Cougars defense held the All-stars to just one first quarter point and nine second quarter points.
Dalkiran said it was a good first game to see what they need to work on.
"We played well but we could be better," she said. "I think it [nerves] was because of the excitement of the first game."
The Cougars really never looked back as they led 16-1 after one period and then 39-10 at halftime.
The second half saw the Cougars defense continue to stay tough, holding the All-stars to 10 points each quarter. Offensively, WNCC saw good inside play despite only shooting 37.5 percent for the game. WNCC led 60-20 after three and opened up the fourth with eight straight points before pushing the lead to 74-22 on an Olivia Wiberg bucket.
The All-stars scored the final eight points of the game on four free throws by Jessica Aratani, and buckets by Chalsey Grentz and Bethany Cooper.
WNCC held the All-stars to 17 percent shooting from the field and forced 20 turnovers.
The Cougars were impressive on the boards, out rebounding the All-stars 53-38. They also had 15 steals and committed just nine turnovers for the season-opening game.
Three Cougars finished with double-figure scoring. Zeynep Canbaz led the way with 18 points, while also pulling down six rebound and dishing off three assists.
Anastacia Johnson tallied 13 points with six rebounds, while Dalkiran had her 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The Cougars also had plenty of balanced scoring after that with Sladjana Rakovic and Jaleesa Avery each had eight points, while Bree Paulson and Giovanna Silva each had seven points.
Three All-stars finished with seven points. Aratani, Grentz, and Ashley Stevens each had seven points.
WNCC will be at the Gillette Classic this weekend, facing the Wyoming All-stars on Friday and Gillette on Saturday.
Neb. All-stars 1 9 10 10 – 30
WNCC (1-0) 16 23 21 14 – 74
NEBRASKA ALL-STARS
Jessica Aratani 7, Bethany Cooper 1, Sara Kustur 2, Ashley Guzman 3, Chalsey Grentz 7, Brittany Cooper 3, Ashley Stevens 7.
WNCC
Melisa Kadic 1, Sladjana Rakovic 8, Jalessa Avery 8, Olivia Wiberg 2, Zeynep Canbaz 18, Bree Paulson 7, Anastacia Johnson 11, Deniz Dalkiran 10, Giovanna Silva 7.