Lubbock, TX – The first half was not the best effort put forth by the Cochise College women's basketball team in the NJCAA Division I Basketball Championships on Wednesday.
Luckily for the 23rd-seeded Lady Apaches, they made up for it with a stellar second half, rallying from a four-point halftime deficit with a dominating third quarter en route to a 63-52 upset of No. 10 seed Collin College in the opening round of the tournament on Wednesday at the Rip Griffin Center.
Cochise (28-5) outscored Collin (29-3) 19-7 in the third quarter to break open a close game. The Lady Apaches used a 13-2 run to open the quarter, then grew the run to 17-3 to go up by 10 at 44-34 with 3:36 left in the third period.
Collin put together a pair of surges to stay in the game, but each time Cochise had an answer and held off the Lady Cougars down the stretch.
"(Alayna Contreras) stepped up huge, probably her best game of the year," Cochise head coach Misty Opat said. "I think it was a total team effort. The way AC shot the ball … in an overall not-great shooting night, I'm proud of our kids. We stepped up."
With the win, Cochise advances to the second round where it will face No. 7 seed Wabash Valley at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Contreras scored 12 of her game-high 18 points in the second half, including seven in the third quarter a huge 3-pointer early in the fourth that put the Lady Apaches up 51-48 with just over eight minutes left. Her effort helped make up for an off game by Cochise's leading scorer, Maeva Fortuna Ngnawo, who suffered from early foul trouble.
Collin closed the gap to as close as five on a Caroline Glud-Rasmussen 3-pointer with 4:48 to play, but Cochise extended its lead with a 7-0 run capped by a trey from Andjela Bigovic with 3:42 to play, and the Lady Cougars never seriously threatened again.
"I think a big thing for us has been just staying consistent and playing good," Contreras said. "Whenever we have a bad night we just try to pick it up after that."
Bigovic added 12 points for the Lady Apaches and Jessenia Lawson chipped in 10 points in the win.
Waiata Jennings led Collin with 17 points and Mackenzie Buss added 11 in the losing effort.
Jennings asserted herself early on in the contest, scoring four of Collin's first six points en route to a 13-point, first-half performance. She finished with eight in the first quarter alone to help push the Lady Cougars to a 16-15 lead.
But she wasn't the only one scoring for the Lady Cougars as they hit 53.8 percent (7 of 13) from the field in the first half, including 3 of 9 from 3-point range. Collin also dominated inside, outscoring Cochise 16-12 on points in the paint despite giving up a 19-17 advantage in rebounding.
Cochise weathered the first surge from Colin and led 13-10 before the Lady Cougars reeled off six straight points, four from Jennings. She added a 3-pointer and a layup off a steal early in the second quarter that put the Lady Cougars up 22-19 with just under 7 ½ minutes left in the first half.
Cochise, however, would not be fazed. Even after Buss hit the free throws to go up by eight late in the first half, the Lady Apaches answered with buckets from Chana Paxixe and Contreras to stay within striking distance at 31-27 at the intermission.
Contreras, Bigovic, and Lawson had six points each in the first half for Cochise.
