CASPER, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team played as hard as they could and had the win in their hands, but fell on a last-second 3-pointer to Casper College 74-71 to wrap up the Region 9 Crossover Classic on Saturday evening.
The Cougars, 13-5, finished the Crossover Classic with a 1-2 record and will now be off until January 24 and 25 when they host Otero and Trinidad State in South Conference contests. The winner of the South conference hosts the Region IX tournament in March.
As for Saturday's contest, it was a game where the Cougars had the home-standing T-Birds on the ropes for the majority of the contest. WNCC couldn't of asked for a better first quarter as they never trailed in the opening 10 minutes as Laura Montiel hit the first bucket of the contest, a 3-pointer, and went on to lead by seven, 17-10 on a Zozefine Sipolina bucket.
Sipolina later hit back-to-back treys for a 23-14 lead and Nataly Dunka buried a 3-pointer to end the first quarter for a 26-16 lead for the Cougars.
The second quarter was a little rough at the beginning. WNCC held a 31-23 lead when Casper went on a 10-0 run to take their first lead of the contest with five minutes left in the quarter. WNCC responded in the final three minutes, holding Casper scoreless while going on a 7-0 run to end the half on a Helena Kuck bucket at the buzzer for a 42-35 lead.
The third quarter was lukewarm as both teams scored 14 points. WNCC never trailed in the third quarter as they built their largest lead of the game at 11 points, 51-40, on two Dunka free throws. After that, the T-Birds outscored WNCC 9-5 as WNCC led 56-49 after 30 minutes of play.
The fourth quarter was the deciding quarter as Casper came out and buried two 3-pointers to take their second lead of the game at 61-58. Casper led 69-65 with just under three minutes to play. WNCC tied the game at 69-69 with 130 to play on back-to-back buckets by Montiel and Dunka.
Casper went up 71-69 with under a minute to play. The Cougars knotted the game at 71 on a Lidia Hernandez bucket with 26 seconds to play and it seemed as overtime was in the books. WNCC played tough defense and with 3.6 seconds on the clock, Casper's Luna Ueda buried a defended 3-pointer from a couple steps behind the 3-point line to put the T-Birds up 74-71 with 3.6 seconds to play. WNCC's last second tying trey that hit the rim, but wouldn't go down.
WNCC shot 46 percent for the game with six 3-pointers. The Cougars were also 15-of-22 from the charity stripe. Casper shot 41 percent from the field with eight 3-pointers. Casper was 8-of-11 from the free throw line.
WNCC had three in double figures, led by Dunka with 19 points followed by Sipolina with 16 and Montiel with 13.
WNCC (13-5) 26 16 14 15 – 71
Casper (13-5) 16 19 14 25 – 74
WNCC
Lidia Hernandez 7, Helena Kuck 6, Laura Montiel 13, Adelina Urtane 8, Nataly Dunka 19, Asia Mitchell 2, Zozefina Sipolina 16.
CASPER
Andi Schissler 18, Saioa San Francisco 2, Adama Badjie Coly 18, Luna Ueda 19, Marina Concepcion 2, Csenge Szomszed 15.