Eastern Wyoming women nip MCC with basket in final 20 seconds

The Eastern Wyoming Community College women scored the game-winning basket in the final 20 seconds of play to down McCook Community College 57-56 Saturday at home.

The Lancers tied the game at 55-55 with 37 seconds left in the game. MCC's Vanessa Jurewicz (sophomore, Stockholm, Sweden) was fouled and made one of two free throws to put MCC up 56-55 with 21.1 seconds remaining on the clock. After a timeout, Eastern's Ines Gnahore found room in the lane and hit a game-winning layup.

"Defensively I thought we had some letdowns the last couple possessions and Eastern made some plays," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett.

MCC still had time to take the ball the length of the court and Jurewicz was able to drive the lane and put up an eight-foot jumper that didn't fall.

"We had an opportunity to win the game and I thought we executed, we just didn't get the ball to bounce our way," Pritchett said. "I thought Vanessa got a great shot on it. Nine times out of 10 -- make it 10 times out of 10 -- I'd be great with that shot, it just didn't fall."

The win was the second straight for Eastern Wyoming after starting the season 0-9. They Lady Lancers picked up their first win in North Platte Friday,

"We gave up 27 turnovers and it doesn't matter who you play, 27 turnovers can lead to potentially 54 points on the board," Pritchett said. "The only reason we struggled to score is because we turned the ball over and it wasn't anything the other team was doing, it was our mistakes."

After trailing 18-12 at the end of the first quarter, MCC outscored the Lancers 19-6 in the second 10 minutes to take a 31-24 lead at intermission.

"We played a good first half and a really good second quarter," said Pritchett. "We were able to get some movement and get some things going against their zone and get some baskets to make it tough on them."

EWC pulled one point closer in the third period with an 18-17 quarter edge and a 48-41 MCC lead with 10 minutes remaining in the game.

MCC shot 34.6 percent from the field, made four of 15 shots from the 3-point line (26.7 percent) and 16 of 20 free throws (80 percent). MCC outrebounded the Lancers 34-30.

"We made a few more shots, we made some timely ones, but we took a lot of shots early on the shot clock," said Pritchett.

EWC shot 37.9 percent for the game, went four-for-23 from distance (17.4 percent) and nine of 12 from the free-throw line (75 percent).

Freshman Natalie Harmata, (freshman, Sydney, Australia) led MCC with 12 points. Jurewicz scored 10 points and had a team-best seven rebounds.

MCC goes to 2-10 on the year and on Thursday MCC will play its final home game of the semester taking on the Hastings JV team 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