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Early hot shots ignite MCC's win over Air Force team
The McCook Community College women played their strongest half of the season Friday and beat Air Force Prep 67-54 in the second game of the Cobblestone Hotel & Suites Classic at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.
MCC held the Huskies to just four points in the second quarter to hold a 39-17 lead at the half.
“We shot the ball really well and did some nice things in the first half,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “Offensively we got into the paint and got some kickouts, played really hard and executed.”
MCC made 15 of 27 first-half shots (57.7 percent) and made four of six 3-pointers (66.7 percent) while holding Air Force prep to 20.6 percent from the field and one of 13 from the 3-point arc.
“This is the first time we built a pretty big lead and we got a little complacent with it and didn’t do the same things in the second half,” Pritchett said
The Huskies outscored MCC 16-11 in the third quarter and chipped halfway into the 22-point lead in the fourth quarter.
“We’ll learn from this,” Pritchett said. “I’m not excited about the second half, it ended up the way it did and they made a run but we withstood the run so that’s a positive thing. We made some shots and executed when we needed to.”
Maite Lara Garcia (Sant Joan Despi, Spain) led MCC with 14 points and six rebounds and went six of 11 from the field (54.5 percent) from the floor. Valentina Monzo (Santiago, Chile) scored 12 points and had four boards making four of seven shots (57.1 percent) including one of two 3-pointers.
“Inside play for us was big with Maite and Valentina both scoring in double-figures for us,” said Pritchett.
Freshman Itziar Aransay Badia (El Prat de Llobregat, Spain) went three-for-three on 3-point shots and came off the bench for nine points. Sophomore Yzabelle Tevao (Auckland, New Zealand) scored eight points on two-of-two 3-pointers along with four rebounds.
“I thought Yzabelle had one of her best games of the season,” Pritchett said. “She was locked in within our offense and because of that she was able to produce, got some big rebounds and made some big 3-pointers each half and played really well.”
Sophomores Alyssa Van Vleet (Oberlin, Kan.) and Sonia Sato (El Paso, Texas) both chipped in eight points and had four and three rebounds respectively.
MCC shot 47.3 percent from the field, and made eight of 17 3-pointers (47.1 percent) and seven of nine free-throws (77.8 percent). Air Force Prep shot 30.6 percent from the field, 20 percent from the arc, and five of 13 from the line (38.5 percent). MCC had 11 turnovers to nine for the Huskies.
“Well clean some things up and have another good one against Colby,” Pritchett said.
Air Force Prep is 1-1 having defeated Region IX’s Northeastern Junior College to open the season.
The tournament continues Saturday with the Huskies taking on North Platte (2-1) at 1 p.m. with MCC (3-1) taking on Colby (2-2) following that game at approximately 3 p.m.
The Lady Trojans downed North Platte 62-56 in the early game Friday.