TORRINGTON – Despite having four players in double-digits, the Eastern Wyoming College Lady Lancers dropped their final regular season game at home on Saturday against Western Nebraska Community College, 76-68.
The Lady Lancers got off to a slow start, falling behind 21-14 after the first frame. WNCC expanded their lead to 46-30 by intermission. In the first half, EWC shot 35 percent from the field and they knocked down 3-of-6 from behind the arc.
In the second half, the Lady Lancers began chipping away at the Lady Cougar lead. EWC put up 15 in the third quarter compared to WNCC’s 13. In the last 10 minutes of regulation, EWC poured in 23 points, while allowing 17, but it was too little too late.
“We made a nice run toward the end, but if you take away those mistakes at the beginning, we wouldn’t have had so far to go,” coach Tom Anderson said.
The Lady Lancers upped their shooting percentage to 36 percent in the second half, but their three-point shooting percentage dropped to 27 percent in the last two quarters.
Four of EWC’s five starters were in double-figures. Sarah Bersang led the Lady Lancers in scoring, racking up 24 points, 11 of which came from the charity stripe. She amassed four boards and an assist for the EWC.
Emily Evans knocked down 3-of-6 from behind the arc on her way to recording 16 points on the night. Carna Prokic chipped in 11 points in the loss. Evans and Prokic combined for three boards and a block.
Pamela Bethel had 10 points and eight rebounds on the night, along with a block and a steal. Jessica Rossi led the Lady Lancers in rebounds, with nine.
“We are always going to have 3-4 kids in double-figures, but we need more from our bench,” Anderson said.
In the loss, the Lady Lancers shot better than the Lady Cougars from behind the arc and from the charity stripe and were only one percent behind WNCC in total field goal percentage. EWC also had 11 more rebounds than the visitors. The Lady Lancers did give away 21 turnovers, compared to WNCC’s eight. The Lady Cougars scored 12 more points off turnovers than EWC did.
“Overall, the biggest thing was we didn’t really do a good job of taking care of the ball,” Anderson said. “You can’t do that against a good team.”
The loss in EWC’s final home game puts the Lady Lancers at 19-11 during the regular season. EWC went 8-6 in the conference. They start their postseason against Lamar Community College at home on Saturday at 6 p.m.
“We had two extremely close games with Lamar,” Anderson said. “They know they can beat us and we know we can beat them so it’s going to be a great game.”
The contest against Lamar helps decide seeding for the tournament. The Region IX tournament is slated for March 9-11 at WNCC.
“Everybody is 0-0 and in the same situation,” Anderson said. “It is one and done so you need to play like there is no tomorrow because if you don’t, there probably is no tomorrow.”
