Northeastern JC women topple McCook 64-53 64

STERLING, COLO. – The Northeastern Junior College women came back from a six-point second-half deficit and used a strong fourth quarter to beat McCook Community College Saturday 64-53.

After trailing by 12-points in the first half and 26-19 at intermission, MCC scored the first 10 points of the third quarter to take a 29-26 lead and stretched it to six points. MCC led 40-36 to start the fourth quarter but the Plainswomen came out and dominated the quarter 28-13.

"We are struggling to score and shoot the ball right now," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "Our consistency has to improve and we need to get production from our bench."

 After shooting 24.1 percent in the first half, MCC finished the game shooting 31.7 percent from the field and 26.3 percent from the 3-point line. The MCC bench scored nine points.

Sophomore Alyssa Van Vleet (Oberlin, Kan.) led MCC offensively with 16 points including four of eight from the 3-point line. She also grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.

"I thought Alyssa had a great second half for us to bring us back and take the lead in the third quarter," Pritchett said. "She hadn't shot it great this weekend over three halves, but I told her at halftime I really needed her to bring her best, we needed her energy."

MCC completed as stretch of three region games in six days while the rest of the teams played one or two games.

"We were tired, but you work with the hand you are dealt and we flat out need to improve on both ends of the ball quickly," Pritchett said.

Sophomores Vanessa Jurewicz (Stockholm, Sweden) and Sonia Sato (El Paso, Texas) both scored 10 points. Sato had eight rebounds. Sophomore Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla, Spain) had five points and four assists.

"Carla had been playing at about 60 percent all week but really fought through a lot of pain today to give us everything she had," Pritchett said. "We need everyone to have that same mindset as we move forward."

NJC goes to 10-8 on the season and 1-0 in Region IX south play.

MCC goes to 9-8 (1-2 in Region IX South).

The MCC women will be home Tuesday for a 6 p.m. game against the Hastings College JVs. On Friday MCC travels to La Junta, Colo., for a 6 p.m. contest against Otero Junior College followed on Saturday with a 3 p.m. game at Trinidad. The next home game for MCC is Jan. 22 against North Platte, starting at 5:30 p.m.