The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team was outscored in the fourth quarter 28-19 by Colorado Northwestern Community College, but hit clutch free throws down the stretch to earn the 61-56 win Friday in the Cougar Classic.
The first game of the Cougar Classic saw No. 4 Dodge City Community College register a 67-52 win over No. 11 Salt Lake Community College at Cougar Palace.
Saturday's schedule will pit Dodge City against Colorado Northwestern at 11 a.m. followed by the Cougars taking on Salt Lake at 1 p.m.
WNCC head coach Ryan Davis said it wasn't the best performance, but the Cougars did lead from start to finish.
"We didn't play very well. I think we kind of got in a spin cycle of one of those games where we kind of started good and then we relaxed and thought we were going to just blow a team out. We let them hang around too long," he said. "We didn't play well, but I do think that we've played seven scrimmage games against really good teams and won most of them. It was a very abnormal way we played today."
While the Cougars didn't play their best, they did show a lot of tenacity on the court in holding the lead from the start and leading 26-18 at halftime. It was the first game jitters in many ways and Davis isn't concerned about that since they had eight freshmen and just one returning sophomore play tonight.
"I don't know if I'm too concerned that that's the way we're going to play the rest of the way. You just have to get the first game out of the system and just go on for tomorrow," he said. "There's a lot of jitters. There is nine freshmen, so everybody wanted to put their good foot forward. Friends, some of their family here, host families, so there is some pressure and I think they felt that early on."
Both teams didn't shoot the ball well in the contest. WNCC shot 30.5 percent from the field and buried just 6-of-23 3-pointers. Colorado Northwestern shot the same from the field, 30-5 percent, but buried 8-of-31 from beyond the arc.
WNCC had two in double figures, led by Ella Chesta-Carty with 19 points and seven rebounds followed by sophomore Zozefine Sipolina with 16 points with three triples and 7-of-11 from the charity stripe.
Casper's Brynn Sybrant had a good game as well, tallying nine points with six rebounds. Charisma Johnson led the team on the boards with 10 rebounds, while Celina Donyo had nine rebounds.
WNCC led 12-4 after one period and pushed the lead to 17-6. The Cougars led 25-13 on a Sybrant bucket and led 26-15 before CNCC's Taylor Jones had an old-fashioned 3-point play for the 26-18 halftime lead.
WNCC started strong in the third quarter has they led 35-21 after back-to-back triples from Juseana-Rae Delatori and Sipolina. After buckets by CNCC, WNCC scored seven straight points to lead 42-25 and settled for the 42-28 lead after three.
The fourth quarter saw CNCC open the 10-minute quarter with 15 straight points to just three for WNCC to cut the deficit to 45-43. The big play came from Cimonie Martinez, who scored seven points including a 4-point play. It stayed just two points deficit until 53-51. WNCC's Sybrant had four straight points for a 57-51 lead and then Chesta-Carty hit 4-of-6 free throws for the 61-56 win.
CNCC 4 14 10 28 – 56
WNCC 12 14 16 19 – 61
CNCC
Shyann Farbes 4, Cimonie Martinez 10, Cassandra Perez 1, Natalie Pineda 8, Natalie Neuhaus 6, Phoenix Sweat 4, Taylor Jones 23.
WNCC
Celina Donyo 5, Veralyn Aviles 4, Charisma Johnson 2, Zozefine Sipolina 16, Ella Chesta-Carty 19, Juseana-Rae Delatori 6, Brynn Sybrant 9.