MCC Women top Southeast CC Sunday at home 70-50

The McCook Community College women remain unbeaten in Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference play with a 70-50 win at home Sunday against Southeast Community College.

MCC goes to 4-0 in the NCCAC standings with two road games remaining on the conference schedule: Feb. 8 at Beatrice against Southeast and Feb. 15 at North Platte.

"It was really good to get his one at home, with a conference game against Southeast," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "Southeast is a team that shoots the three really well and we knew that coming in."

Southeast's Hunter Hartshorn led Southeast with 18 points – and all of those points came from the 3-point line where she was six of 16. The Storm made nine of 29 3-pointers (31.0 percent for the game.)

In the first half it was MCC with the hot hand from the 3-point line making six of 14 shots from distance on the way to a 17-10 first quarter lead and a 35-22 advantage at intermission.

"I thought we shot it well the first half and then got a little complacent with our shot selection in the second half and fell in love with the three a little bit too much," Pritchett said. "We still need to get better with that we have to continue to go with our zone offense because teams will zone us and get us to shoot it so we have to be more focused on those things."

MCC shot 40.3 percent from the field for the game, and 37 percent from distance (10 of 27), and made six of 16 free throws, (62.5 percent).

"We had a lot of players stepped up, and a lot of players contributed," Pritchett said.

Sophomore Sonia Sato (El Paso, Texas) led all scorers with 19 points, sophomore Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) scored 18 points, went four-for-seven from the 3-point line, and had three steals.

"Sonia had another big one for us, played really well and has shot the ball well for the past two games," Pritchett said. "Vanessa's been shooting the ball well the past three games from three and we've got to continue those things."

Sophomore Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla, Spain) scored 12 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

"Carla has been a rock for us with another double-double," Pritchett said.

Sophomore Alyssa Van Vleet (Oberlin, Kan.) scored nine points and made two of seven 3-pointers along with four rebounds. Sophomore Maite Lara Garcia (Sant Joan Despi, Spain) came up with nine rebounds, three on the offensive end. Sophomore Shelby Clark (Las Vegas, Nevada) scored five points and nabbed six boards.

MCC dominated the boards 48-34 and turned the ball over 14 times.

The Storm shot 27.7 percent from the field, and in addition to shooting 31 percent from distance made five of seven free throws.

"I like where we're at and like where we're heading," Pritchett said.

MCC goes to 14-8 overall. Southeast goes to 9-10 and 1-2 in the NCCAC.

MCC will face Western Nebraska Friday at 5:30 p.m. at home followed by a 2 p.m. Contest Sunday against Northeastern Junior College.

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