MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team buried 12 3-pointers and led from start to finish in claiming a Region IX South Conference 67-50 win over McCook Community College Tuesday evening in McCook.

                The win moves the Cougars to 3-0 in the conference while McCook drops to 3-1 in the conference. WNCC is now 16-5 overall and will next be in action on February 8 when they travel to Lamar Community College. McCook falls to 13-9 overall.

                In other Region IX scores on Tuesday, Lamar defeated Trinidad State 89-84 while Central Wyoming upended Northwest 76-69.

                The key in the contest was the Cougars' hot shooting in the first half where they buried nine 3-pointers and, at one point, seven straight 3-pointers. Lidia Hernandez opened the game with a 2-point bucket and then the Cougars four straight triples in the first quarter to lead 14-9 after one.

                WNCC continued the 3-point shooting in the second quarter with two straight triples by Helena Kuck and Zozefine Sipolina for a 20-9 lead. McCook came back with an 8-0 run to make it a 20-17 game. Kuck stopped the run with another 3-pointer and that started a 10-0 run with Adelina Urtane scoring the final seven points, including a 3-pointer to lead 30-17. WNCC led at halftime 37-24.

                The second half saw McCook trail 39-28 and that was when Sipolina buried another 3-pointer. Sipolina followed that with an old-fashioned 3-point play and the Cougars led 47-30. The Cougars led 53-39 after three period.

                McCook tried to come back, slicing the deficit to 13, 57-44, but WNCC went on an 8-0 run that included four points from Urtane for a 65-44 lead and WNCC never looked back.

                The Cougars had three players in double digits. Urtane and Sipolina led with 17 points each while Kuck had 15 points. Kuck hit for five 3-pointers while Sipolina had four triples.

                WNCC shot 53 percent from the field and 46 percent from behind the arc. McCook shot 43 percent from the field but were just 22 percent from the 3-point range.

                Free throw shooting was also excellent as both teams went 100 percent. But, then again, not a lot of charity tosses were attempted as the Cougars attempted just three while McCook attempted four.

WNCC (16-5)                 14 23 16 14 – 67
McCook (13-9)              9 15 15 11 – 50
WNCC
Lidia Hernandez 7, Helena Kuck 15, Laura Montiel 8, Adelina Urtane 17, Nataly Dunka 3, Zozefine Sipolina 17.
MCCOOK
Madara Liepniece 13, Irene Fernandez Pavesio 9, Natalie Harmata 2, Carolina Garcia Perdomo 4, Lala Izqueirdo Altimira 7, Miriam Wahlqvist 2, Peyton Cox 11.