MCC women take over first place in NCCAC standings

The McCook Community College women took over the lead in the Nebraska Community College standings Tuesday with a 59-52 win over Southeast Community College.

"This was a good win for us. We didn't play our best all the way through, and it wasn't pretty at times, but we kept our composure," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett.

"This has been a different team in the second half –we knew we'd take some bumps early on – and we still have a lot of the season to go, but I'm proud of the progression," Pritchett said. "Last semester we get into these situations, and even the first couple games this semester, we crumbled."

On Tuesday, both teams were tied at halftime 28-28 but MCC outscored SCC 17-10 in the third quarter before the Storm cut the lead to two points with just over six minutes left in the game. MCC took charge of the game outscoring the Beatrice team 13-6 over the rest of the way.

"We're doing a better job of not letting mistakes affect us and tonight we showed we can battle through those and make some stops," Pritchett said.

Southeast came out and held an 18-14 lead after one quarter.

"Southeast played hard, made good shots, got offensive rebounds and they beat us up inside, but we just kept battling," said Pritchett.

The Storm outrebounded MCC 42-29 and went to the free-throw line 16 more times than the hosts.

"They get 26 free throws to our 10, and a lot of calls went their way but, we fought through all that adversity," said Pritchett.

Sophomore Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) helped keep MCC in the game early with 17 first-half-points.

"Vanessa had a great start of the game for us, and Taryn Lindsey made some big free throws for us, she drives, attacks, gets a lot of contact and gets herself to the line," said Pritchett.

The 5-5 redshirt freshman from Fountain, Colo., led all players with nine rebounds, scored 16 points and went eight-for-eight at the free-throw line.

"I like the toughness in those two guards, they have carried us all year and now some others are continuing to step up," Pritchett said.

Jurewicz finished with 26 points, including two-for-five from the 3-point line and two-for-two from the free-throw line with four assists. Noa Iglesias Chorda (freshman, Barcelona, Spain) scored seven points – all coming in the second half.

MCC shot 41.5 percent from the field, made five of 16 3-pointers, and went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.

SCC shot 32.7 percent from the field, made two of nine shots from the 3-point line, and went 14 of 26 from the line (53.8 percent).

Southeast falls to 13-12 overall and 2-2 in Nebraska Conference play.

MCC improves to 9-14 and 3-1 in the NCCAC with a pair of NCCAC games left: Feb. 14 at home against North Platte and Feb. 20 at Columbus against Central Community College.

The Storm have two NCCAC games remaining, both on the road: Saturday at North Platte and Feb. 25 at Central Community College.

MCC will return to Region IX play Friday and will host Lamar Community College in a 5:30 p.m. game at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

MCC is tied for third among the six teams in the south division of Region IX. Otero is first at 5-1, Western Nebraska second at 3-1, MCC and Trinidad State are tied at 3-2 (MCC downed the Lady Trojans 79-73 in McCook Jan. 14), Northeastern Junior College fifth at 1-3 and Lamar College sixth at 0-5.

The winner of the south division will host the Region IX post-season tournament this year with the top two finishers from the south and north getting automatic bids. The third and fourth-place teams will host a home play-in game against the fifth and sixth place teams.

For all the up-to-date information on MCC women's basketball this season and all sports including schedules, statistics, rosters and photos, please visit the official website of MCC Athletics at mccindians.com

NEBRASKA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

ATHLETIC CONFERENCE STANDINGS

                        W - L     PCT.

McCook CC        3 – 1     .750

Southeast CC     2 – 2     .500

North Platte       1 – 2      .333

Central CC         1 – 2      .333

RESULTS

Nov. 22 – MCC 67, Central 61 (at McCook)

Jan. 21 – Southeast CC 88, Central 47 (at Beatrice)

Jan. 24 – North Platte 77 MCC 65 (at North Platte)

Jan. 27 – Southeast CC 73, North Platte 69 (at Beatrice)

Jan. 29 – MCC 74, Southeast 66 (at Beatrice)

Feb. 3 – Central CC 60, North Platte 50 (at North Platte)

Feb. 7 – McCook 59, Southeast CC 52(at McCook)

REMAINING SCHEDULE

Feb. 11 – Southeast CC at North Platte, 2 p.m.

Feb. 14 – North Platte at McCook, 5:30 p.m.

Feb. 17 – North Platte at Central CC (Columbus), 5:30 p.m.

Feb. 20 – McCook at Central CC (Columbus), 5:30 p.m.

Feb. 25 – Southeast CC at Central (Columbus), 5:30 p.m.