LA JUNTA, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team fought hard, but the No. 3 ranked Casper College women's basketball outscored the Cougars 35-23 in the fourth quarter to come back to defeat the Cougars 94-87 in semi-final action in the Region IX tournament at La Junta, Colorado, Friday.
WNCC ends the regular season at 15-5 with their only hope of gaining a national tournament bid falling with the at-large committee.
Casper advances to the Region IX championship game where they will face Otero Junior College Saturday at 4 p.m. The Rattlers defeated McCook Community College 66-53 in the other semi-final game.
WNCC played tough in the contest from start to finish. The Cougars led 4-2 before Casper came back to lead 10-4. The Cougars took the lead at 14-12 before watching the T-Birds score six straight for an 18-14 lead. Casper led after the first quarter 23-20.
The second quarter saw WNCC retake the lead 24-23 on a Lidsey Mahoukou bucket. Casper responded with back-to-back 3-pointers for a 31-30 lead only to watch WNCC go on an 8-0 run that was highlighted by an Alejah Douglas 3-pointer. WNCC led 43-36 at halftime.
The third quarter saw WNCC stay on top of Casper. WNCC led by 11 points, 54-43, on a Ashley Panem 3-pointer. Casper came back to cut the deficit to two, 56-54, before the Cougars went up 59-54 and led 64-59 has Ky Buell nailed an off-balanced 3-pointer that banked in as time expired.
The Cougars carried that momentum into the fourth quarter where they led 70-66 before Casper went on a 12-0 run that included three 3-pointers for a 78-70 lead.
WNCC kept fighting as the two squads traded basketball like two prize fighters. WNCC cut the lead to five points, 89-84 on a Buell trey and then sliced the lead to four, 91-87 on a Douglas 3-pointer. But, late free throws was the difference as Casper went on to get the win.
Both squads combined for 21 3-pointers. Casper had 11 while WNCC had 10, nine of which came in the second half. Douglas buried four treys while Buell had three. WNCC's other treys came from Panem, Shanti Henry, and Martrice Brooks.
Free throw shooting was the difference as the Cougars were just a little over 58 percent from the charity stripe at 15 of 26 while Casper made 12 more free throws than the Cougars at 27 of 33 for 82 percent.
WNCC had three players in double figures. Douglas led the way with 35 points. The freshman point guard had 18 in the first half and 17 in the second half. Douglas scored 15 of those 17 in the fourth quarter. Douglas also had four treys and was 9 of 10 from the free throw line.
Mahoukou and Buell each had 12 points while Brooks and Panem were next in line with nine points.
WNCC 20 23 21 23 – 87
Casper 23 13 23 35 – 94
WNCC
Alejah Douglas 35, LIdsey Mahoukou 12, Ky Buell 12, Martrice Brooks 9, Ashley Panem 9, Isabelle Cook 4, Shanti Henry 3, Payton Fields 2, Bella Sparaco 1.