Lady Indians Hoopsters picked for post-season honors

Four McCook Community College women’s basketball players have received year-end awards.

Sophomores Natalie Harmata, Madara Liepniece and freshman Johanna Gerlach were named to the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference team while Liepniece and freshman Peyton Cox received honorable mention for the Omaha World-Herald Midlands Junior college team.

Liepniece, 5-7 point-guard from Riga Latvia, started and played in all 31 games for MCC. She led the Lady Indians with 12.4 points per game, 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game. She was second on the team with 5.1 rebounds per game. She shot 34.0 percent from the field, 30.8 from the 3-point line and 70.9 percent from the free-throw line. During the season, she scored in double-figures 20 times, with a high of 25 coming against Laramie County Community College on Nov. 8.

She was also named to the Region IX all-south team as well as being selected to the all-tournament team and received the Region IX South Player of the Week three times during the season. For her career, Liepniece averaged 9.0 points a game and scored 564 points with 217 rebounds, 143 assists and 84 steals.

Harmata, 5-10, guard from Sydney, Australia, came back this season from an ACL injury and missed all but four games of the 2023-2024 season. She played in 29 games and averaged 8.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game while shooting 46.6 percent from the field. She scored 20 points in games against Snow College on Nov. 23 and again Dec. 2 at Central Community College.

As a freshman, she started 21 games and averaged 7.1 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. For her career, Harmata played in 63 games and scored 508 points (averaged 8.1 per game) with 230 rebounds, 60 steals, 51 assists and 12 blocked shots.

Gerlach, 5-9 guard from Hachborn, Germany, played in 31 games and averaged 7.5 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. She shot 42 percent from the field, and 72.1 percent from the free-throw line.

She scored a season-high 21 points in NCCAC play Feb. 9 at Lincoln against Southeast Community College, then topped that five days later when she scored 22 points at Lamar, Colo.

In being picked for the World-Herald team, Cox, 5-11 forward from Wauneta, overcame an early-season concussion which put her out of action for nine straight games in mid-November and all of December. She came back to play in 22 games and averaged 7.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and shot 50 percent from the field.

Cox scored in double-figures nine times with a season best coming Jan 18 at Trinidad State when she scored 19 points making five of six shots from the field and eight of nine shots from the free-throw line and nabbing 12 rebounds which tied her season-high recorded on opening night at home against North Platte. She also recorded two games with 10 rebounds.

Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com