Posted: Nov 08, 2019

Lady Indians improve to 4-0 with win over Laramie County

The McCook Community College women's basketball team improved to 4-0 but had to wait until their opponents' 3-point shot at the buzzer missed. MCC downed Laramie County Community College 62-59 Friday at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

"This was a good test for us because we haven't played a team of this caliber yet this year," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "I thought Laramie battled hard to the end, and they shot the ball well from 3. We executed at times and we also made some mistakes too, but it's early in the season and we can fix those things."

MCC came out strong and posted an 18-10 first-quarter advantage. The Eagles gained a point in the second quarter, trailing 33-26 at the half but lost it back in the third, trailing 47-39 before out-scoring MCC 20-15 in the final quarter.

With sophomore starting point guard Nicola Cross (Melbourne, Australia) out for several weeks with an injury, those responsibilities fell to sophomore transfer Paula Rosello Mateu, (Barcelona, Spain) who stepped up in a new role.

"I thought Paula came in and had a good game, she'd been struggling a little bit, but she came out and really helped us offensively, we're a hurt at that position so it's next person up and she did a great job of taking care of the ball, especially not playing that position much until this week."

Mateu led the Lady Indians with 17 points to go along with four assists and five steals.

Sophomore Makenna Bodette (Colorado Springs) scored 15 points, had 12 rebounds and two blocked shots. Redshirt freshman transfer Jessika Espinoza, (El Paso, Texas) came off the bench to score 12 points, and grabbed five rebounds.

The coach was disappointed with the number of turnovers his team committed particularly executing the break in the latter stages of the game. The Lady Indians had eight miscues in the first half then 12 more in the second 20 minutes.

"We rebounded pretty well and really didn't give up too many second-chance opportunities for them," Pritchett said. MCC held a 35-28 edge on the boards.

The Lady Indians shot 42.6 percent from the field for the game including a 4-for-21 night from the 3-point line.

"We have to shot the ball better," Pritchett said. "I really thought this was a team that would, but we're just not making shots. We're getting good looks from the offense we just have to knock them down," Pritchett said. "I think a lot of it is just confidence, we have to have a shooter's mentality."

The Eagles shot 39.6 percent from the field and made seven of 16 from the 3-point line (43.8 percent).

This was the first game of the season for Laramie County Community College.

MCC, 4-0, takes on Eastern Wyoming Saturday at 2 p.m. for Veteran's Appreciation Day. All active duty and military Veterans and their spouses will be admitted for free and are invited to watch the games from the VIP room where refreshments will be served. All fans are encouraged to wear red white and blue gear to honor Veterans.

For complete coverage of MCC Lady Indian basketball including, schedule, photo galleries, statistics and more, visit the MCC Athletics web page at https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?tab=basketball2&path=wbball

If you can not make it to the games watch MCC basketball home games at https://mccindians.com/sports/2016/11/10/tw.aspx?tab=tribewatch

For more photos from tonight's game please visit the McCook Community College Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook/