Lady Indians win at Southeast CC, 93-87

BEATRICE Coming off a two-point road loss Saturday, the McCook Community College Lady Indian basketball team struggled early, responded late and beat Southeast Community College Sunday 93-87.
MCC dropped an 81-79 decision at Columbus Saturday and opened Sunday's contest flat, as the Lady Storm jumped to a 23-10 lead. The Lady Indians were able to "course-correct" and closed out the first quarter trailing 27-18
"I am really proud of how the team responded from a tough game yesterday, and a tough start today," MCC Coach Kellen Fernetti said.
The Lady Indians fought back to trim the nine-point first-quarter deficit to a 46-41 halftime deficit and a 67-64 deficit after three quarters. MCC picked up the offensive tempo in the final stanza and kept the momentum going at the free-throw line outscoring the Lady Storm 29-20 in the final quarter.
"Our offense has really improved as the season has went on, with 93 today that was fun to see our team move the ball like we did today," Fernetti said.
The Lady Indians were one rebound short of having three players with double-doubles.
Freshman Aliyah Foote (Lawrenceville, Ga.) led all scorers with 31 points to go along with nine rebounds. She was three of 10 from the 3-point line, had four offensive boards and five on the defensive end to go along with four assists, three steals and two blocked shots.
Brook Jamison (Hyannis) scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. She made three of five field goals (one-for-one 3-point shot), six-for-six from the free-throw line, three offensive rebounds, nine defensive boards, and had nine assists.
Sophomore Gabby Enloe (Colorado Springs) scored 10 points making good on five of eight field goal attempts, and had 12 rebounds (three on offense, nine on defense) and two blocked shots.
Colby Cox (Wauneta-Palisade) was three-for-eight from beyond the 3-point line to finish with nine points.
The Lady Indians also got 24 points from the bench including 10 from Grace Wellman (Charlotte, N.C.) and eight points from Monesha Green (Haughton, L.A.).
"We shot well from the free throw line too which was huge," Fernetti said. "It was a good team win today."
The Lady Indians shot 40.2 percent from the field, seven for 23 from distance (30.4 percent) and converted on 20 of 24 free-throw attempts (83.3 percent.)
Southeast shot 39.2 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from the 3-point line and 68 percent from the free-throw line.
MCC held the rebound advantage 54-46, turned the ball over 19 times. The Lady Storm turned the ball over 20 times.
Marcia Hawkins led Southeast with 24 points. Erika Goracke had 16.
Southeast Community College falls to 9-16 on the season.
MCC improves to 6-20 and will play Northeastern Junior College at Sterling, Colo., Friday.
The Lady Indians close out the season with three home games starting Feb. 20 against North Platte at 5:30 p.m. for "Blue-Out/homecoming" Night, followed by Western Nebraska Feb. 23 at 5:30 p.m. and Eastern Wyoming College Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.