The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team put four players in double figures in earning a 79-59 win over Lamar Community College Wednesday evening at Cougar Palace.
The big key in the win that pushed the Cougars to 2-0 in the South Sub-Region was a big first quarter and then a second half where the Cougars hit plenty of shots just before the shot clock buzzer went off.
WNCC head coach Ryan Davis said his team played well and they hit shots when they needed.
"We did (hit shots just before the shot clock buzzer) and that's probably not typical of a normal game, but I think our awareness at the end of the shot clock was really important," he said. "We got a shot a lot of times and we have people that are just playmakers and so we had the ball in the playmaker's hands. They were able to kind of read the shot clock in the situation and then able to get a shot off."
Another big key in the win was scoring 20 points in a quarter. The Cougars did that in three of the four quarters and those were the quarters they won. The second quarter was the only one they didn't score 20 points and Lamar outscored them in that quarter 18-11.
"Strong first quarter, strong fourth quarter and we only lost one of the quarters," Davis said. "So, we went 22-11 in the first and 21-8 in the fourth quarter and what I saw at the end, especially with about four minutes left is I kind of felt Lamar felt things slipping away and I was really proud of our girls because there were some times there at the beginning of the second half that we could have let that slip away and they just did a great job of being solid and then took off at the end."
It was a big team win for the Cougars as well with four players getting in double figures and different people stepping up at different times in different situations. WNCC was led in scoring by Ella Chesta Carty with 17 points while also pulling down nine rebounds.
Veralyn Aviles chipped in 16 points with six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Charisma Johnson tallied 14 points with 12 coming in the first half, while Zozefine Sipolina getting 13 points with three triples.
WNCC shot 46 percent from the field and made nine 3-pointers. The Cougars also missed just one free throw (8-of-9). Lamar shot 39 percent and made just three 3-pointers while making 8-of-13 from the charity strip.
The first quarter was a big reason for the Cougars' win. WNCC fell behind early at 4-2, but came storming back in taking a 9-4 lead on a Sipolina 3-pointer. WNCC closed out the quarter on a 9-2 run that included Aviles hitting a shot just before the final quarter buzzer to lead 22-11.
The second quarter saw WNCC build a 26-12 lead and led 31-23 on a Johnson bucket with 3:23 to play. Lamar came back as they scored six straight to make it a 31-29 before Johnson hit a bucket to close out the first half scoring and a 33-29 WNCC lead.
The third quarter was wild as the two teams combined for 47 points. Early on it was back and forth until WNCC took a 45-37 lead with 5:10 to play. Lamar fought back to make it 45-41. WNCC went up 50-42 after Juseana-Rae Delatori buried a 3-pointer just before the shot clock buzzer went off. Lamar came back to make it a 50-46 game. Delatori did it again, hitting a 2-point bucket just before the shot clock buzzer sounded and that shot started an 8-5 run to give the Cougars a 58-51 lead after three.
Lamar made the first bucket in the fourth quarter to get within five. WNCC scored the next nine points to go up 67-53 including a bit 3-pointer by Chesta-Carty. The Cougars continued excelling and Chesta-Carty buried a trey with just under four minutes to play before the shot chock expired to give the Cougars a 73-55 lead. WNCC never looked back after that.
WNCC will look to go 3-0 in the South Sub-region when they host Southeast Community College on Saturday at 1 p.m. Southeast and North Platte moved up to Division I this season from Division II so the Bobcats will be the first time in several years to play all the South teams in conference since the 1990s.
Davis said going 3-0 in the conference is key and they can't take any team lightly.
"Going 3-0 would be a good start and this was a big win because I think Lamar was at the bottom of the league last year and he has done such a good job in one year flipping that around," Davis said. "I knew this was going to be a tough game. So, to be able to beat them the first time around, I thought, was really important. We'll see if we can keep it going against Southeast on Saturday."
Lamar 11 18 22 8 – 59
WNCC 22 11 25 21 – 79
LAMAR
Amaya Williams 17, Ana Zesari 14, Chiney Idika 9, Aaliyah Clarke 7, Shay Oyewole 7, Alexis Halley 5.
WNCC
Ella Chesta-Carty 17, Veralyn Aviles 16, Charisma Johnson 14, Zozefine Sipolina 13, Celina Donyo 8, Aniaya Burton-Hernandez 6, Juseana-Rae Delatori 5.