Posted: Jan 24, 2020

Lady Rattlers knock off MCC women in overtime

LA JUNTA, Colo. The Otero Junior College Rattlers took charge in the late stages of overtime Friday to pull out a 99-93 win over the McCook Community College women.

"I thought we battled all the way through," said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett. "We needed a few more shots to fall for us down the stretch."

Tied at 87, at the end of regulation, MCC scored the first three points, before OJC responded with a 6-0 run. The Lady Indians tied the game at midway through the extra period but the Rattlers secured the win scoring the final six points of the game. Otero went six-for-six from the line in overtime after going 10 of 12 in the fourth period.

"Our execution has to be on-point to end games and we had an opportunity to win in regulation and we didn't get the shot we wanted," Pritchett said.

The teams battled from the beginning with Otero leading 24-21 after the first quarter and 43-40 at the half. MCC tied it after three quarters 63-63.

The Lady Indians were led offensively by sophomore transfer Paula Rosello Mateu, (Barcelona, Spain/ Miles Community College) with 26 points including a five-for-10 night from the 3-point line.

Freshman Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla Spain) had 21 and six rebounds. Sophomore Makenna Bodette (Colorado Springs) scored 18 points with six rebounds and freshman Gail Whiting (Montgomery, Ala.) scored 13 points to go along with six boards.

MCC shot 57.9 percent from the floor for the game, made eight of 21 shots from distance (38.1 percent) and was 19 of 23 from the charity stripe (82.6 percent).

"We shot the ball better on the road than we had in a while," said Pritchett.

Otero shot 47.4 percent from the floor, made five of 22 3-pointers (22.7 percent) and made 20 of 24 free throws (83.3 percent). The Rattlers out-rebounded MCC 35-31 including 14 on the offensive end, outscored MCC 25-9 on points off turnovers, and held a 48-30 scoring edge in the paint.

The Rattlers improve to 13-3 and 3-0 in the Region IX south division.

The Lady Indians fall to 13-5, and 1-2 in south sub-region play. MCC travels to Trinidad State Saturday (2-11, 0-2) for a 3 p.m. (MT) game.

MCC returns home Wednesday for a home game against the Doane University JVs at 6 p.m. in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.

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