MCC women come back from 21-point deficit to beat LCCC

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The McCook Community College women overcame a 21-point deficit Saturday and came back to down Laramie County Community College 61-56.

"It was a tale of two halves," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "We played about as bad as we could in the first half and the second half we finally saw some fight in this group that we hadn't seen all year."

The Golden Eagles held a 17-7 edge in the first quarter and went up 37-16 with 16 seconds left in the half to set the stage for some half-time motivation.

"We finally decided to play some defense and we took it one possession at a time," said Pritchett.

MCC held LCCC to nine points in the third period while scoring 22, then kept it going with a 23-10 advantage in the fourth period.

Sophomore Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) led MCC with 21 points. Maite Lara Garcia (sophomore, Sant Joan Despi, Spain) scored 15 points including a seven-for-10 showing at the free-throw line and five rebounds. Sophomore Carla Torrubia Cano (sophomore, Melilla, Spain) led MCC with 11 rebounds to go along with 13 points.

"Vanessa had another big game for us, she made some big shot. I love how she's been for us offensively when she stays aggressive she a playmaker," said Pritchett.

MCC's bench only contributed two points in the Saturday win and that came from a bucket from sophomore transfer Shelby Clark (Las Vegas, Nevada), but she did clean up the boards well with three offensive rebounds and five on the defensive end.

"We had a lot of players make plays in that second half. Shelby rebounded the ball so well today, those rebounds were huge plays," said Pritchett.

Sophomore transfer Sonia Sato (El Paso, Texas) scored eight points and had five rebounds.

 "Sonia did a lot of little things that don't show up on the stat sheet," said Pritchett.

MCC shot 46.9 percent from the field, made just three of 13 shots from 3-point range, (21.4 percent) and made good on only 12 of 22 free throw attempts (54.5 percent). MCC held a 36-32 rebound edge.

"We didn't have a great shooting night, but the effort and energy from this team being down 20-plus points was something special to be part of, I'm so proud of them, ," said Pritchett.

LCCC shot 38.3 percent from the field, 17.6 percent on 17 3-pointers, and went seven-for-nine at the line (77.8 percent).

The Golden Eagles fall to 8-4.  

MCC, which lost to LCCC Nov. 6 in McCook 57-53, improves to 6-6 and will close out the semester Tuesday in Kansas when they face High land Community College at 5:30 p.m.