MCC women resume hoops slate Saturday
The McCook Community College women's basketball teams begin the second semester of play Saturday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center starting at 2 p.m. against Central Community College. The MCC men were supposed to play Central but that game has been postponed because of Covid-19 protocol with the CCC team.
Saturday will be the first of four games the women will play before the semester starts Jan. 16 and nine games this month including five home January games and four on the road.
The MCC women, 7-6, will face the 6-6 Lady Raiders in a Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference matchup Saturday at 2 p.m.. MCC won their first meeting in Columbus Nov. 23 taking a 74-69 win in overtime. MCC will also be home Tuesday to face Lamar at 5:30 p.m. in a Region IX matchup with the 6-9 Lady Lopes before hitting the road in a busy month with nine games.
The women and men will be on the road Jan. 14 at Jan. 15 at Western Nebraska and Northeastern Junior College then return home to host the Hastings College JVs Jan. 18 at 5 p.m. After that, it's on to eastern Colorado for road games at La Junta (Otero Junior College) Jan. 21 and at Trinidad Jan. 22 before closing out the month with home games Jan. 25 against North Platte starting at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 30 against Southeast Community College (1 p.m.).
THE MCC WOMEN lead the nation in free throw percentage, connecting on 75.1 percent of its shots. They make an average of 14.6 free throws per game and take 19.5 per game. The team ranks 112th in scoring at 62.9 points per game and shoots 40.8 from the field and 29.3 percent from the 3-point line. Defensively teams are averaging 66.1 points per game.
Forward Maite Lara Garcia (Sant Joan Despi, Spain ) leads the team averaging 14.8 points per game along with 5.8 rebounds. She shoots 53.0 percent from the floor and has made the sixth most free throws in the nation (69) and is connecting on 83.1 percent of her shots from the line
Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) is averaging 11.8 points per game from the point guard slot along with a team-high 2.9 assists. She reached double digits for the first time this season in the team's eighth game and has picked up her production since that time scoring in double digits in six straight games and topped the 20-point mark in her last three games. Over her final six games she's averaged 18.0 points per game. She's made 80 percent of her 45 free throws.
Second year freshman Valentina Monzo (Santiago, Chile ) missed seven games, but averaged 10.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in the six games she played. She's 57.1 percent from the field, 47.1 percent from the 3-point line and made 16 of 22 free throws (72.7 percent).
Alyssa Van Fleet (Oberlin, Kan.) has played in nine games for MCC and started eight, averaging 8.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, shooting 87 percent from the free-throw line (15th best in the NJCAA). Super sophomore Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla, Spain) has started all 13 games for MCC and is averaging 7.9 points and a team-leading 6.8 rebounds per game.