Laura Montiel finished with 21 points and the Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team had a 34-point second quarter on their way to an 86-60 win over Eastern Wyoming College in the final day of the Fairfield Inn Cougar Classic Saturday afternoon.
In the earlier game on Saturday, Laramie County Community College held a 19-6 first-quarter lead over No. 9 Dodge City Community College. Dodge City, however, outscored LCCC 55-26 in the second half to take the 82-56 win.
WNCC, 5-1, will be back in action next weekend when they travel to Twin Falls, Idaho, for the CSI Classic where they will face Utah State Eastern on Friday and then College of Southern Idaho on Saturday.
Montiel, who also had five steals and three assists on the day, said the team played pretty well.
"I think we played pretty good. I think we showed in the second half of the game who we are. We had fun and we played together so I think it was a pretty good game."
The first quarter was tight as the Cougars trailed early and then went ahead and led 13-12 after the first 10 minutes. The second quarter was where the Cougars opened the game, scoring 34 points enroute to a 47-30 halftime lead.
Montiel said the big difference between the first and second quarter was rebounding.
"The big key in that quarter was offensive rebounding and also the energy on defense," Montiel, the sophomore from Spain, said.
The Cougars have now played six games and they are starting to gel. Montiel said they are coming around, but still have things to work on.
"I think we are playing really good together because yesterday (Friday) Zo scored 27 points and today someone else scored over 20 points, so I think we are doing good because we play together and we never know who will score the most points any single game."
Saturday, the Cougars put four in double figures. Montiel led the team with 21 points followed by Helena Kuck with 17 and 15 points each from Nataly Dunka and Adelina Urtane.
Zozefine Sipolina, who had 27 on Friday, had just nine points followed by Lidia Hernandez with six.
Another big key in the win was the ability of sharing the ball. The Cougars dished out 17 assists and had 13 steals. Kuck had four assists, while Hernandez, Montiel, and Asia Mitchell all had three assists. Montiel had five steals to lead the team while Mitchell tallied four steals.
The second quarter was definitely the factor. WNCC held a slim 18-17 lead after an old-fashioned 3-point play by Nikolina Vukcevic. After that, Montiel took over with seven straight points and then Kuck hit a pair of 3-pointers and the Cougar lead ballooned to 39-19. WNCC led 47-30 at half.
The third period saw WNCC keep the lead near 20 points. WNCC led 54-35 when Urtane scored six straight for a 60-35 lead. WNCC pushed the lead to 65-42 on two Urtane free throws and led 65-45 after 30 minutes of play.
EWC did cut the deficit to 17, 67-50, but the Cougars reeled off 15 straight points including 3-pointers by Kuck and Montiel to lead 82-50 on their way to the win.
Game 1
Dodge City 6 21 24 31 – 82
LCCC 19 11 14 12 – 56
DODGE CITY
Konstantina Mantziori 10, Becca Unruh 6, Tayah Morgan 15, Mia Jordan 16, Savi Mi 2, Layla-J Cameron 20, Shorna Preston 11, Sofia Ahmed 2.
LCCC
Flora Lukow 11, Kelly Megown 9, Keirra Williams 11, Marcela Pinedo-Saavedra 16, Nuria Florensa 2, Sabela Carro 7.
Game 2
EWC 12 18 15 15 – 60
WNCC 13 34 18 21 – 86
EWC
Leamsi Acuna 2, Rhia Sagger 2, Lucy Devoy 5, Ariadna Martinez 8, Josephine Vourliotis 7, Nikolina Vukcevic 12, Aliya Tripp 11, Yaiza Paredes 13.
WNCC
Lidia Hernandez 6, Helena Kuck 17, Asia Mitchell 1, Laura Montiel 21, Adelina Urtane 15, Zozefine Sipolina 9, Carleigh Pszanka 2, Nataly Dunka 15.