MCC lady hoopsters lose 58-51 against Northwest Kansas

The McCook Community College women's basketball team raced out to a 10-point first-quarter lead Monday in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center but gave up the lead in the fourth quarter to Northwest Kansas Technical College. The Lady Mavericks won 58-51.

"We got up early and I just thought we got too comfortable," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "We were up then they made a couple baskets, we turned the ball over a couple times, and then our energy just faded after the first five or six minutes of the game."

MCC failed to score over the final 2:00 of the first period and held on to a 17-14 lead.

"We were just comfortable, and against anybody – it doesn't matter who they are – you can't be comfortable. You have to continue to battle and execute and we didn't do those things and put ourselves in a fight."

Both teams maintained that pace through the second and third quarters with both teams scoring nine points in the second frame and 15 in the third before the Kansans outscored MCC 20-10 in the final ten minutes of the game. Northwest Kansas took the lead for good, 46-45 with 5:14 left in the game.

Neither team took very good care of the ball with MCC turning the ball over 24 times and the Mavericks' 26.

"I think probably 12 of our turnovers were us just handing them the ball, they weren't doing anything defensively to force us into mistakes," Pritchett said, "If we maintain possession and score on just half of those possessions, that's a 12-point difference in the game right there.

MCC shot 22.2 percent from the floor in the second half while NWKTC made 47.8 percent of their second half shots.

MCC shot 27.3 percent for the game, went six-for-27 from the 3-point line and made 15 of 19 free throws (78.9 percent).

NWKTC shot 40.8 percent from the field, 18.2 percent from distance and 59.3 percent on 27 free-throw attempts.

"We have to attack teams. We put pressure on them early and got them into foul trouble and then we went away from that," Pritchett said. "So I've got to do a better job of figuring out how to execute better and to get them to understand that every possession is important."

The coach was pleased with the way his team held up inside against a 6-3 post and a pair of 6-2 players on the NWKTC roster.

"This team had some size and length and we held them to eight offensive rebounds so that's one of the best jobs we've do so far this season on the rebound side," Pritchett.

NWKTC outrebounded MCC 38-34. Northwest Kansas's 6-3 freshman Sarengbe Sango led all rebounders with 16, but only four on the offensive end. She also led all scorers with 16.

Sophomore Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) led MCC with 14 points. Redshirt freshman Taryn Lindsey, (Fountain, Colo.) scored eight and had a team-high seven rebounds.

Gemma Gruettner Bacoul (freshman, Berlin, Germany) scored seven points and freshman Natalie Harmata, (Sydney, Australia) grabbed six rebounds.

"We have a lot of little things to work on, but they are things we can correct," Pritchett said.

The Lady Mavericks improve to 2-0 on the season.

MCC falls to 1-3. On Thursday the team travels to Concordia, Kan., to play Cloud County Community College. MCC's next home game will be Nov. 22 when they host Central Community College.

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