MCC Women lose home opener to No. 11 Iowa Western

The McCook Community College women's basketball team opened the season Tuesday with a 99-69 loss to No. 11 Iowa Western at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

"We're a young group and it really showed tonight," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "It was probably one of the sloppiest first games we've had here."

With one returner and four first timers in the starting lineup, MCC trailed to the Reivers 22-11 at the quarter break and 50-31 at the half.

"We knew they were going to be solid," Pritchett said of the NJCAA Division 2 team that is a perennial Top 20 team. "They came with a lot of toughness and a lot of fight," said Pritchett.

The two teams combined for 64 fouls and 90 free throws. Iowa Western scored 43 points from the free-throw line in 53 tries and finished the game 81.1 percent from the line  

"There were a lot of fouls and a lot of things we have to clean up," said Pritchett.

MCC had three freshmen foul out and had two more that finished with four.

"There's only so long you can use the excuse about being a young team, so we just have to be better in a lot of different areas," said Pritchett.

MCC had 16 turnovers and gave up 19 offensive rebounds

Vanessa Jurewicz (sophomore, Stockholm, Sweden), MCC's only returning starter, led MCC with 17 points. Redshirt freshman Taryn Lindsey, (Fountain, Colo.) scored 15 points. Freshman starters Natalie Harmata, (Sydney, Australia) scored 13 points and Marta Moya Perez (Alboraya, Spain) chipped in nine points.

MCC shot 33.9 percent from the floor, went 0-for-16 from the 3-point line, made 27 of 37 free throws (73.0 percent) and was out rebounded 56-30.

"Shots just didn't fall tonight and a lot of it was because we didn't execute our offense," said Pritchett.

Iowa Western shot 37.3 percent from the field and sank six of 20 3-pointers (30.0 percent). They had six players in double figures led by Courtney Fields with 17.

"We've just got to get this game out of our system and prepare for two more this weekend," Pritchett said.

MCC will be on the road Friday at Cheyenne, Wyo. where the team will take on Laramie County Community College and then go to Torrington, Wyo. Saturday to face Eastern Wyoming.

The next home game for MCC is Monday against Northwest Kansas Technical College at 6 p.m.

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