GILLETTE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team won their fifth straight contest after topping Colorado Northwestern Community College 76-52 in the second day of the Holiday Inn Express Invite in Gillette, Wyoming, Friday.
The win moves the Cougars to 9-4 and they will wrap up the invite when they face No. 12 College of Southern Idaho Saturday at 2 p.m. Other games in the Invite on Friday saw Casper College top Dawson Community College 83-43 and CSI topped Gillette College 74-59.
The win Friday was one where the Cougars buried five 3-pointers and were 31-of-43 from the free throw line. CNCC made three 3-pointers and were just 13-of-14 from the charity stripe.
WNCC had three players in double figures, led by Celina Donya with 19 points. Donya also had six rebounds while going 13-of-16 from the free throw line. Zozefine Sipolina added 16 points with four 3-pointrs, while Veralyn Aviles had 14 points with six rebounds and five assists.
WNCC never trailed in the contest as they scored the first five points of the game. CNCC hit a triple to make it 5-3, but WNCC led 12-5 on a Brynn Sybrant bucket and led 23-9 on a Aniaya Burton-Hernadez made. WNCC led 23-11 after the first quarter.
The second quarter saw CNCC outscore the Cougars 18-17. But the closest they could come was 11 points on three different occasions. WNCC led 38-21 before CNCC finished off the second quarte3r on a 7-2 run to trail at halftime 40-29.
The third quarter saw WNCC go up 43-29 and led 52-38. After a bucket by CNCC, the Cougars closed out the third quarter on a 5-0 run to lead 57-40 after three.
WNCC led by as many as 23 to start the fourth as the Cougars scored the first six points all on free throws by Donya. WNCC never looked back after that.
WNCC 23 17 17 19 – 76
CNCC 11 18 11 12 – 52
WNCC
Juseana-Rae Delatori 4, Veralyn Aviles 13, Charisma Johnson 8, Zozefine Sipolina 16, Brynn Sybrant 9, Ruth Lively 3, Aniaya Burton-Hernandez 3, Celina Donyo 19.