Sladjana Rakovic poured in 22 points and the Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team held on to post a 69-65 win over Eastern Wyoming College Saturday evening at Cougar Palace.
The win was the Cougars 14th of the season and moves the Cougars to 5-1 in sub-region play. EWC drops to 12-9 and 2-4 in sub-region play.
Rakovic though they played well in getting their second straight victory.
"I thought we played better than we have the last couple of games," she said. "We are moving the ball better and I think our defense was good. We made them turn over the ball a lot of times and EWC is a good team, too."
What won it for the Cougars was their quick start. WNCC jumped out to a 16-9 lead after the first quarter and led by 15 on a number of occasions in the second quarter before settling for a 37-26 halftime lead.
"Quick starts is what we usually are doing and it is because of our defense," Rakovic said. "Defense should be the most important part of how we play."
EWC coach Tom Andersen said his team had a bad first half and that was the difference in the game.
"I thought we played a lot better the second half," Andersen said. "The first half we had way too many turnovers and we didn't adjust to the physicality of the game. We got ourselves in a hole and then we scraped has hard as we could to get back close, but we ran out of time and that was the end."
The second half was a matter of runs. WNCC pushed the lead to 46-32 on a Melisa Kadic 3-pointer. EWC came back to slice the lead to single digits at 46-38. It was short-lived as Rakovic had an old-fashioned 3-point play and then Bree Paulson canned at 3-pointer for a 54-40 lead. WNCC led after three quarters 56-44.
EWC outscored WNCC 21-13 in the final quarter and sliced the lead to six points at 62-56 on a 3-pointer with five minutes to play. After that both teams traded buckets. Jaleesa Avery had back-to-back buckets to move the score to 69-63. EWC had chances to get closer but made just 2-of-4 free throws down the stretch.
Andersen said it was a good game between two good ball clubs. His team just came up short.
"Both teams were able to score when they needed to, especially in the second half," he said. "We would get closer in the second half and then they would get a couple of buckets and then we would come back. It was a good ball game between two pretty good teams. They are big and talented and give them a lot of credit."
WNCC had four players score in double figures. After Rakovic's 22, Paulson chipped in 13, Anastacia Johnson had 11 with five steals; and Jalessa Avery had 10 points.
EWC also had four in double figures. Carna Prokic led the way with 16 points followed by Anna Perez with 15. Sarah Bersang had 12 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the free throw line, while Emily Evans had 11 points.
WNCC will be back in action Monday when they host Casper College at 5:30 p.m. Monday's game is the inaugural Hall of Fame game where former Cougars Bobby Jackson and Dick "Night Train" Lane will be enshrined.
EWC 9 17 18 21 -- 65
WNCC 16 21 19 13 – 69
EWC
Emily Evans 11, Sarah Bersang 12, Carna Prokic 16, Anna Perez 15, Katrina Terrell 6, Jessica Rossi 2, Pamela Bethel 3.
WNCC
Melisa Kadic 5, Sladjana Rakovic 22, Jalessa Avery 10, Zeynep Canbaz 2, Bree Paulson 13, Anastacia Johnson 11, Giovanna Silva 6.