The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team received balanced scoring and a strong defensive effort in posting a 73-53 win over Trinidad State College Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.

                The win moves the Cougars to 17-8 on the year but more importantly keeps the Cougars in the driver's seat to host the Region IX tournament in March. WNCC moves to 5-1 in sub-region play while Trinidad, who beat the Cougars a couple weeks ago, fall to 3-4.

                WNCC coach Isaac Lu said his team played well especially on defense for the majority of the game.

                "I thought defensively besides the last five minutes of the game, we played really well," Lu said. "They essentially went on a 13-1 run in the last five minutes of the game where we just lost focus. Our goal needs to be to continue to play well no matter what the score is and not to just show up and win games."

                The two middle quarters, though, was where the offense started to pick up after a first quarter that saw a combined 13 points scored.

                "Typically we have come out to slow starts in the third quarter, but we outscored them 28-10 in that quarter and it was good to see us open up the game with our defensive pressure and create turnovers to get easy baskets in transition," Lu said. "Overall, I thought we played a good second half. We played about 20 to 30 minutes of good basketball and the other 10 we have to continue to make sure we are bringing to the floor the level of performance that we have."

                Balanced scoring was also a key as the Cougars put four in double figures led by Jayla Owen with 15 points and Shiho Isono with 12. Bre Fowler also tallied 11 points while Mackenzie Joseph had 10, Rashaan Smith with nine, Ola Dida with eight, and Faith Walker with seven.

                "That (balanced scoring) continues to be a theme for our team," Lu said. "We continue to share the ball every single possession. Every time we are down there on offense we look for the best shot available for our team. We throw it inside to our post and we like to drive and kick and make good decisions with the ball. That is something we will continue to stick with. It is not a one-man show, one-woman show out here. We have to play together, play to the person next to each other, and then the wins and losses and the scoreboard will take care of itself."

                WNCC's defensive pressure was key to the win as the Cougars held Trinidad to just 26 percent shooting and 20 percent from beyond the arc (6-of-30). The Trojans were also just 15-of-23 from the free throw line.

                The Cougars were much better, especially in the second half. The first half, WNCC shot just 28 percent from the field and 17 percent from beyond the arc. The second half, the Cougars were 53 percent from the field and 43 percent from behind the arc. WNCC was just 18-of-29 from the free throw for the game.

                The rough first quarter was evident as both teams played strong defense. Trinidad bolted to a 5-0 lead and the Trojans led after one quarter 7-6.

                The second quarter saw WNCC score two quick buckets by Fowler and Joseph. Trinidad came right back with back-to-back 3-pointers by Yle Exposito-Perez and Mya Williams to go up 13-10. WNCC followed with an 8-0 run to go up 18-13 and later led 20-15. Trinidad sliced the deficit to 20-19, but the Cougars finished off the half with five straight points for a 25-19 lead at halftime.

                The third quarter is where the Cougars opened the game up as they outscored Trinidad 28-10. The Cougars led 30-21 on an Owen offensive rebound putback. The Cougars pushed the lead to double digits at 38-26 and then closed out the third stanza on a 15-3 run that saw Isono and Duda each score six points to lead 53-29 after three.

                WNCC kept playing well offensively as they went on a 13-2 run to open the fourth on five points from Fowler including a trey to lead 66-31 with about six minutes to play. After that, the Cougars offense sputtered as Trinidad outscored WNCC 22-7 in the final 5:24. Still, WNCC got the win 73-53.

                WNCC will have a big sub-region test next week when they have three contests. The action all starts Tuesday when they travel to Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado. After that, the Cougars will have home games on Thursday against Lamar Community College and then Saturday against McCook Community College.         

                Lu said those three games are crucial in the team's goal of hosting the regional tournament and winning the south sub-region.

                "Those games are very important and we have to make sure we have the same approach every single game as we did like last night (Friday) against Otero where we were firing on all cylinders from the start to the finish," he said. "we have to make sure we have great practices in that we are not showing up to just win games, we are showing up to play well and to get better so that we can become that we need to be to reach our goal of winning a regional championship."

Trinidad                7 12 10 24 – 53

WNCC                   6 19 28 20 – 73

TRINIDAD
Mya Williams 9, Mariah Maes 2, Yle Exposito-Perez 14, Desiree Bachicha 1, Tiersah Penn 12, Keisy Alvarez 11, Cristina Luquin 4.
WNCC
Shiho Isono 12, Jayla Owen 15, Yara Garcia 1, Bre Fowler 11, Mackenzie Joseph 10, Ola Duda 8, Faith Walker 7, Rashaan Smith 9.