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MCC women send Seward County visitors to first defeat
The McCook Community College women’s basketball team held off a hard-charging undefeated Seward County College team Tuesday at home to win 57-55.
The Lady Indians had a 15-12 first-quarter edge, stretched the lead to 31-21 at the half, went up 41-22 at the 5:55 of the third quarter and held on for a 47-38 lead after three quarters. Seward County came on in the fourth quarter and hit a couple 3-pointers to close the gap to 47-46 and took their first lead, 52-51, since early in the game with 3:47 left to play and led 54-53 with 2:21 left in the game.
“Even though we started the season off 2-1, this was the first time this season that I really saw the toughness in this team,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. “It wasn’t that way all game long and there were some spurts in the second half that Seward was really fighting hard doing everything they could to get back in the game, but we just didn’t back down.”
On the next possession sophomore Marta Moya Perez (Alboraya, Spain) hit a fast break bucket down the lane to give MCC a 55-54 lead and the Lady Indians held on defensively allowing a lone free throw over the final three minutes of play.
Seward outscored MCC 17-10 in the fourth quarter but the Lady Indians got some key defensive stops late in the game.
“Really everybody stepped up” said Pritchett. “Carol (Garcia Perdomo) came in and made some shots and hit some free throws, Miriam (Wahlqvist) hit some shots, and Peyton (Cox) only had three rebounds for us but they were really big ones in the fourth quarter.”
One of those boards came on the defensive end with 1:48 left in the game and Cox hit a free throw at the other end for MCC’s final points of the night.
Redshirt sophomore Natalie Harmata (Sydney, Australia) got the starting nod and made the most of it leading the team with 12 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) came off the bench with five points and three rebounds.
“We went with Natalie to start this game since she has been playing well and we brought JoJo off the bench for just a different look and paid off,” said Pritchett.
Madara Liepniece (Riga, Latvia) scored nine points for MCC with Perdomo scoring eight points along with Wahlqvist who had eight points including a pair of 3-pointers.
Sophomore transfer Irene Fernandez Pavesio (Miami-Dade, Asturias, Spain) had six rebounds and Cox finished with five points and three boards.
MCC shot 42.6 percent from the field, made five of 13 shots from the 3-point arc (38.5 percent) and made 12 of 20 free throws (60 percent). Seward County shot 28.6 percent from the field made six of 23 shots from distance (26.1 percent) and went 13 of 22 from the line (59.1 percent).
“Shooting was better tonight overall against a tough defensive-minded team so I’m really proud of the group,” said Pritchett.
MCC outrebounded the Lady Saints 40-34. The Lady Indians turned the ball over 21 times to 13 for Seward County, who goes to 3-1 win the loss.
MCC improves to 3-1 and continues the six-game season-opening homestand for two more games. On Friday the Lady Indians host Concordia JV at 7 p.m. and close out the home games Tuesday at 6 p.m. against the Hastings College JV.