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WNCC drops Concordia in its first home game

By MARK REIN
(As printed in the Scottsbluff Star-Herald)
There were a few first home-game jitters off and on, but the Western Nebraska Community College flexed its depth in opening the Lady Cougar Early Bird Shootout with an 81-49 win over the Concordia University Junior Varsity Thursday night at Cougar Palace.

In the earlier game, Colby Community College built a 31-29 halftime edge into a 72-59 win over Sheridan College. Colby and WNCC will tangle tonight at 7 p.m. while Sheridan and Concordia will face off at 5 p.m.

WNCC coach Dave Harnish was pleased with the effort of his team against Concordia, considering it was their home opener, but they can improve in some areas. "To me, I don’t think we played as well as we did last weekend. I think part of it
was Concordia played hard defensively. They shot the ball pretty decently," Harnish said. "It seemed we were out of sync. We made a lot of defensive mistakes in terms of not knowing who we had at times, especially the second half. I thought the first half, wasn’t bad. I was fairly pleased with the first half. Second half we really didn’t have any kind of rhythm."

One big statistic that stood out on the night was steals. The Cougars had 21 steals on the night as freshmen Crystal Harden, Sherronda Appleberry and Brittney Bessert each had four.

That, though, didn’t surprise Harnish as he expects that type of intensity night in and night out. "That is what we do. When we have 12 kids and we are playing all of them, you can be up tempo and you can pull other kids off the bench," he said. "That is what we expect every night."

WNCC’s intensity was fierce at times against Concordia, and it generated plenty of layups all night long.

The Cougars ran out to a 41-20 halftime lead. After Concordia’s Becky Masters drained a three to cut the lead to 34-20, the Cougars scored the next seven points to forge ahead by 21.

Concordia came back in the second half hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the lead to 43-26 and got even closer at 48-30 after Jessica Domina sank her second field goal.

WNCC came back scoring the next 14 points. Tatiana Conceicao, the Cougars 6-foot-2 center, started the spree with a steal and layup. Sophomore Shana Coleman then dazzled the crowd first hitting a 3-pointer and then picked the pocket of a Concordia ball handler and sailed to the basket for two points. 

Freshman Karol Salazar then hit back-to-back buckets followed by another Coleman field goal to forge ahead 61-30. The Cougars’ depth became apparent in the later moments of the game as Digdem Tok showed her athleticism. Tok drove the middle and laid the ball in for two of her eight second-half points.

One of the highlights for Concordia was it’s never-give-up play and the crowd was behind the Bulldogs because of Banner County graduate Stephanie Lease.  When Lease nailed a 3-pointer late in the game, the Harrisburg faithful let out a
good old cheer. Lease finished the game wit seven points including 4-for-4 from the free throw line. She also had two steals in the game.

But, WNCC’s depth was too much as three Cougars were in double figures led by Coleman with 20 points followed by Conceicao with 15 and Tok and Salazar with 10 each

Concordia 20 29 — 49
WNCC 41 40 — 81

WNCC
Crystal Harden 9, Molly McGrath 0, Digdem Tok 10, Sevinc Guler 2, Denisha Fields 4, Brittney Bessert 3, Petra Puchelova 4, Bridgett Murtagh 6, Karol Salazar 10, Sherronda Appleberry 0, Shana Coleman 18, Tatiana Conceicao 15.
Totals: 32 12-19 — 81

Concordia University
Beccak Hiller 3, Stephanie Lease 7, Becky Masters 2, Carly Wolfram 11, Jenny Kerner 8, Brooke O’Neill 0, Kelsey Hibbert 7, Jessica Domina 8, Tara Kirchner 3. Totals: 17 9-12 — 49.