LUBBOCK, Texas – The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team played team defense and rebounded the ball in posting a huge second-round win over Wabash Valley Community College Friday afternoon at the Rip Griffin Arena on the campus of Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, Texas.
The win moved the Cougars into the Elite Eight with a showdown with South Plains College. South Plains earned a win over Northwest Florida State College 54-50. Saturday action will be at 4 p.m. MST and the winner moves to the Final Four against the winner of the Arizona Western and Tyler Junior College game.
WNCC and South Plains both moved forward in the tournament by knocking off teams that had a bye and were seeded eight or higher. Wabash Valley was seeded fifth while South Plains defeated the No. 4-seeded team.
WNCC head coach Chad Gibney said it was a good team win.
"That was a really good team that we played and I thought we needed to play one of our better games to get the win. We certainly did that tonight," Gibney said. "Realistically right now, who knows if the best team will win this tournament. It will be who can play the best. So our job tomorrow is we have to play better than South Plains plays. I don't care who the best team is as long as we are a little bit better than South Plains."
The win for the Cougars was a game of runs and Gibney said one of the biggest runs was Martrice Brooks' 7-points in a 30 second span in the fourth quarter was huge. That Brooks' run saw WNCC up 55-53 and then she went on a tear with a bucket and then got the pass and drove the length of the court for a driving shot in the paint. Brooks then capped off the run as she had another drive and put up a lay-up plus one to move the sore to 62-53. Then, 40 seconds later, the Cougars went up by 10 at 64-53 on Payton Fields two free throws.
"Obviously Martrice Brooks' run there in the fourth quarter was huge for us and basketball is a game of runs and we are fortunate to make one more game," Gibney said. "I think that is what makes us such a dangerous team is that we can go deep into our bench and play multiple people. We have so many different people that can step up night-to-night. You saw tonight that Martrice came in and probably only played a half a game and gave us a huge, huge lift."
While Brooks' 7-point 30-second run was huge, Brooks along with Aminata Zie and Shanti Henry had another huge run just before halftime. Wabash Valley took their first lead of the game at 30-27 late in the second quarter on a Mariah Jones 3-pointer. It was the final minute of the half that saw the Cougars go on a 7-point run that started with a big bucket by Zie and then a huge old-fashioned 3-point play by Henry in which the Wichita Falls, Kansas, native drove the lane and put the ball in the net while getting hammered. She followed with the successful free throw with 23.2 seconds left for a 32-30 lead.
Wabash Valley worked the ball for the final shot, but missed the bucket and WNCC came away with the rebound and Brooks went coast-to-coast for the lay-up at the buzzer for the 34-30 halftime lead for the Cougars.
Brooks said this was definitely a team win with plenty of clutch buckets and stern defensive plays for the Cougars to get the win.
"I think the team played together and held our composure throughout the game," Brooks said. "There was a lot of clutch buckets in moments when we needed them most, which gave us the momentum we needed to extend the lead."
Another area that was huge for the Cougars was defense. WNCC out-rebounded Wabash Valley 58-44 and had 40 defensive rebounds. The Cougars forced 18 turnovers on Wabash.
A big reason for the huge rebounding edge was the play of Zie and Fields on the class. Zie finished with a team-high 19 boards, 12 of which came on the defensive end. Fields had eight rebounds and little Ale'Jah Douglas finished with seven boards.
"The team played really good team defense and rebounded really well tonight," Brooks said. "We all had assignments that was handed to us and I felt that we all got the assignments done."
Zie and Fields said the rebounding was a huge factor in the game.
"Personally, that was what I was really focused on today in getting as many rebounds as I could whether if it was a defensive rebound or offense," Zie said. "That was my biggest focus today for the game."
Strong defense does set the momentum and that momentum that the Cougars had was vital in stopping Wabash Valley from getting those big runs.
"I think the key in stopping their runs was controlling the momentum," Fields said. "We know what we can do and we know what we are capable of when they make runs. We just needed to stay engaged to the next play."
The Cougars started the game in control as they jumped to a 10-4 lead behind a Henry 3-pointer and a Ashley Panem bucket. It didn't last long as Wabash tied the game at 12-12, but Shayane Poirot hit a trey as the shot-clock was about to expire to give the Cougars the 15-12 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
The second quarter saw WNCC jump to a 21-14 lead behind a Zie bucket and a Fields 3-pointer. Wabash Valley sliced the lead to 21-18 when Panem hit one of the biggest 3-pointers. As the shot clock was about to expire, Panem hit a 3-pointer from beyond NBA range for a 24-18 lead.
Wabash Valley came back on a 12-3 run to lead 30-27 and that was when WNCC scored the final seven points to lead 34-32 at halftime.
WNCC opened the third quarter scoring four quick points from Amani Brown and Douglas. Douglas points was the first of the game for the Cougar point guard. Moments later, Douglas hit another for a 42-36 lead. Wabash Valley then went on an 8-0 run all by their all-star guard Daijah Smith for a 44-42 lead.
WNCC tied the game on two free throws by Fields and then retook the lead on two free throws by Douglas. WNCC led after three quarters 50-48.
The fourth quarter saw WNCC hold a slim 55-53 lead and that was when Brooks went crazy in scoring for the 64-53 lead. Wabash Valley hit a bucket to make it 64-54 with 4:25 to play. WNCC scored six straight on buckets by Zie and Brown and two free throws by Panem to lead 70-54 and never looked back.
WNCC shot 31 percent from the floor and made just six treys in the game. Where they won the game was free throw shooting where they were 82 percent (18-of-22).
Wabash Valley shot 33 percent from the field and made just 5-of-13 treys. Wabash Valley was also just 50 percent from the charity stripe at 12-of-24.
WNCC had four in double figures. Zie led the team with a double-double of 12 points and 19 rebounds. Douglas and Brooks each finished with 11 points while Fields had 10.
The schedule for Saturday at the national tournament will have No. 17 Tyler Junior College battle No. 8 Arizona Western at noon, No. 23 Jones facing No. 18 Eastern Florida State at 2 p.m., No. 13 South Plains meeting No. 12 WNCC at 4 p.m., and No. 3 Georgia Highlands against No. 11 Trinity Valley at 6 p.m. All times are MST.
WNCC 15 19 16 20 – 70
Wabash 12 18 18 11 – 59
WNCC
Ale'Jah Douglas 11, Amani Brown 9, Aminata Zie 12, Shanti Henry 7, Payton Fields 10, Martrice Brooks 11, Ashley Panem 7, Shayane Poirot 3.
WABASH VALLEY
Jade Salters 13, Daijah Smith 19, Shaulana Wagner 11, Yiesha Williams 3, Kalea Fleming 2, Mariah Jones 10, Alexis Radcliff 1.