Lady Indians win final Nebraska Conference game

LINCOLN – The McCook Community College women closed out the Nebraska Conference Sunday with a 62-47 win over Southeast Community College. This is the final year for the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference.

After leading 16-15 after the first quarter, MCC outscored SECC 19-10 in the second period to take a 35-25 halftime lead. Freshman Johanna Gerlach (Hachborn, Germany) came off the bench to hit a pair of 3-pointers to lead the second-quarter surge. The Lady Indians held a 38-9 advantage in bench points.

“I thought we had a good first half especially in that second quarter where we made some plays,” said MCC Coach Brandom Pritchett. “I thought that really helped us. Jojo came in and made two big threes in that second quarter and played really well for us the whole game.”

Gerlach led MCC with 21 points on a nine-for-15 shooting day, including three of seven from the 3-point line. Freshman Laia Izquierdo Altimira (Barcelona, Spain) scored 10 points.

The Indians shot 36.8 percent from the field, went seven-for-18 from the arc (38.9 percent) and made five of eight free throws (62.5 percent).

“We had seven or eight opportunities at the rim that we just missed in that first half,” said Pritchett. “We shot the ball a lot better from 3 compared to Tuesday at North Platte.”

MCC outrebounded SECC 45-38 and turned the ball over 17 times. Izquierdo Altimira and freshman Peyton Cox (Wauneta-Palisade) both had 10 rebounds.

“Rebounding was a key for us and I thought we did a great job on both ends of the floor,” said Pritchett. “We just need to finish better at the rim.”

The Bobcats shot 26.8 percent from the field, 26.9 from the 3-point line on 26 attempts, and went 10-for-16 from the free-throw line (62.5 percent).

MCC finishes the year at 5-1 in the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference. The Lady Indians have clinched at least a tie in the final standings with North Platte. The Knights are 4-1 with a game remaining against Central Community College Saturday in North Platte.

“I'm proud of this group,” said Pritchett. “Our goal at the beginning of the year was to be conference champions, and we at least will have a share of that with North Platte.”

The NCCAC will fold after this academic year with North Platte and Southeast Community College moving up to NJCAA Division 1. Region IX's Division 2 (with just three schools) will dissolve, and Central Community College will move to Region XI with Northeast Community College (Norfolk) and 10 Iowa schools. MCC will remain in Division 1 but next season with the addition of NPCC and SECC, there will be eight schools in the Region IX's south conference. The north conference of Region IX (seven Wyoming schools) remains unaffected.

Southeast goes to 11-16 on the season and 1-4 in the NCCAC.

MCC improves to 15-10 with five games left in the regular season and all are games against teams in the Region IX South. The Lady Indians are 4-1 in the region at the half-way point of the conference slate and in second place behind 4-0 Western Nebraska.

On Friday the Lady Indians travel to Lamar. Colo. to take on the Runnin’ Lopes. Lamar is 9-15 on the season and in third place in the Region standings at 3-3.

MCC’s next home game will be Feb. 18 against Northeastern Junior College at 5:30 p.m.

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