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MCC women wipe out 17-point Trojans lead for win
TRINIDAD, Colo. – The McCook Community College women came from 17 points down Saturday to pick up a second-straight Region IX road win, handing Trinidad State a 69-66 loss.
"I really love the fight in this team," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "Trinidad has a really tough group that plays extremely hard."
MCC opened up the game up 4-0 in the first three minutes of the game. It would be MCC's largest lead of the game. Trinidad State went on a 20-5 run over the final seven minutes to take a 20-9 lead after one quarter. The Lady Trojans stretched the lead to 17 points at the 6:51 mark of the second quarter taking a 28-11 lead.
"We got down 17, but we didn't break, we settled down against their press, and finished plays," Pritchett said. "We knew they would be physical and pressure us and we had to play with poise and control the tempo of the game."
MCC adjusted at both ends of the court, kept Trinidad off the scoreboard for the remainder of the half, and went on a 16-0 run to close the gap at intermission, 28-27.
Trinidad controlled the middle stages of the third quarter and went up 38-28 mid-way through the period and extended the lead to 46-32 with 2:07 left. MCC scored seven points in the final 21 seconds of the quarter, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer by sophomore Shelby Clark (Las Vegas, Nevada) to bring MCC back to a 48-44 deficit after three quarters.
"Shelby had a really good game, made a couple big shots including that 3 to end the third quarter," Pritchett said.
MCC gained its first lead since 4-0 when freshman Kamelija Ignatova (Probishtip, North Macedonia) hit a pair of free throws at the 8:16 mark to put MCC up 51-50. Trinidad regained the lead 54-53 at the 5:33 mark and the teams battled down the stretch. Trinidad went up 66-65 on a 3-pointer with 32.2 left to go. MCC responded on the ensuing possession when Clark drove the lane to put MCC up 67-66. Sato hit a pair of free throws to put MCC up 69-66 with 10.7 seconds left. Trinidad missed a couple 3-point attempts in the final seconds.
"This was a great weekend for us, it's been four years since we've won back to back games at Otero and Trinidad," Pritchett said. "Now we get rest and prepare ourselves for a really good North Platte team Tuesday."
MCC finished the game shooting 45.8 percent from the field, made five of 13 from long range (38.5 percent) and went 20 of 23 from the line (87 percent), including a 10-for-10 showing in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) led MCC with 16 points. Clark came off the bench to score 15 points and made all seven of her shots from the field. Sophomore Sonia Sato (El Paso, Texas) led MCC with nine rebounds to go along with 11 points. Ignatova came off the bench to score nine points.
"I was really impressed with how Kamelija played for us tonight. She made some big plays and was solid on defense. Those are the things we need from our bench to come in and give us quality minutes and make simple plays."
Trinidad shot 33.3 percent from the field, 20.8 percent from the arc, and made nine of 12 free throws (75 percent). MCC turned the ball over 33 times.
Trinidad State outrebounded MCC 43-40, including 22 offensive boards. The Lady Trojans turned the ball over 24 times.
Trinidad goes to 4-12 overall and 1-1 in the Region IX south standings.
MCC improves to 12-9 and 3-2 in the south region standings. MCC will be home Tuesday for a 5:30 p.m. game against North Platte Community College. This will be the annual Blue-Out Night to raise money and awareness for children with disabilities.