MCC Women open hoops season with win at home

The McCook Community College women's basketball team came from 13 points down late in the third quarter to win at home on opening night over Eastern Wyoming 63-56.

"It's always nice to get a win at home to start the season and especially against a tough Eastern Wyoming team," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "We had a lot of different players step up in a lot of different areas."

MCC enjoyed a 24-7 edge in the fourth quarter, took the lead for good midway through the final 10 minutes. It was a night where MCC shot just 41.5 percent from the field, 27.6 percent from the 3-point line and 64.7 percent from the free-throw line.

Eastern Wyoming led at the half 27-25 and held MCC to 36.4 shooting in the first 20 minutes and stretched the lead to 13 with 1:30 left in the third period and held a 49-39 advantage after three quarters.

"We took a lot more 3's than we need to this early on but once they understood, got some kick-outs, drove the lane, opened some things up and we finally got in a groove offensively," Pritchett said. "We executed at the end, made some big plays to get to the free-throw line got some rebounds off our free throws and used our length on a couple key positions down the stretch."

Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla, Spain) -- who is back for a third season at MCC because of the Covid-19 exemption – led MCC with 13 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists. Sophomore transfer Shelby Clark (Las Vegas, Nevada) scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Coach Pritchett like the way his team went after missed shots on the offensive end, leading to a 32-25 rebound edge with 11 of those offensive rebounds and eight coming in the second half.

Sophomore transfer guard Sonia Sato (El Paso, Texas) scored six points for MCC but led all players with 10 rebounds including five offensive boards.

"Sonja has been a great rebounding guard so far for us and kind of plays multiple positions," Pritchett said. "We had a few out with injuries and sickness so we had to play a little smaller but I really liked how we executed."

Sophomore Valentina Monzo (Santiago, Chile) scored nine points, sophomore Maite Lara Garcia (Sant Joan Despi, Spain) scored eight points as did sophomore transfer Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden).

MCC goes to 1-0 and will play Laramie County Community College at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

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