MCC Women open Region IX play with 67-53 win over Lamar

For the second straight game, the McCook Community College women posted dominating second and third quarters to fuel a win. On Tuesday that formula resulted in a 67-53 win over Lamar Community College in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

"It's nice to pick up a Region win, that was a huge positive for us, but we have to shoot the ball better," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett.

After a sluggish first quarter, Lamar took a 12-10 lead.

"It was another rough start for us, after coming out of the game well and then we didn't score over the final four minutes of that first period," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "I think we just got to comfortable and we talked about how we need to have that killer mindset when we get up on teams."

MCC outscored Lamar 21-11 to take a 31-23 lead at intermission and upped the lead to 51-36 at the end of the third period. After MCC stretched the lead to 17 points late in the third period, Lamar battled back to cut the deficit to six points in the fourth quarter.

"We withstood their run when they got within six points," Pritchett said. "I'm proud of our fight to be able to overcome that because they are a team that can shoot the ball and get hot and make some plays."

Pritchett liked the offensive balance Tuesday with four players in double figures.

Sophomore transfers Sonia Sato (El Paso, Texas) and Shelby Clark (Las Vegas, Nevada) both had 14 points. Sato had a game-high 12 rebounds including four offensive boards in the first half as well as a team-best four assists.

"Sonja had a big game and really got off to a nice start rebounding for us," Pritchett said. "Shelby came out and shot the ball well and got others involved I think it's the best game she's had all year."

Sophomore Maite Lara Garcia (Sant Joan Despi, Spain) scored 12 points and had eight rebounds. Sophomore Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) scored 12 points and sophomore Alyssa Van Vleet (Oberlin, Kan.) helped the MCC offense early with three of six 3-pointers in the first half. She finished with nine points.

MCC shot 37.7 percent from the field, made eight of 28 3-pointers (28.6 percent) and went 13 of 16 (81.3 percent) from the free throw line.

"We need to do a better job of attacking and getting to the free-throw line," said Pritchett. "We shot well from the line but just need to do a better job being ready to catch and shoot and when shots aren't falling you have to make adjustments."

MCC turned the ball over 11 times in the first half but just five in the second half.

Lamar shot 33.3 percent from the field, made five of 19 3-pointers and went 11 of 24 from the line. MCC out-rebounded the Lopes 43-30. Lamar turned the ball over 17 times.

MCC improves to 9-6 on the year. Lamar goes to 6-10.

The MCC women are on the road this weekend for games Friday at Scottsbluff against 10^th ranked Western Nebraska (14-1) and Saturday at Sterling, Colo. for a 3 p.m. game against Northeastern Junior College (9-7).

On Tuesday MCC will host the Hastings College JVs in a 6 p.m. game

For more photos from tonight's game, please visit the MCC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook