Western Texas no match for NMJC
Article Written by: Jason Farmer NEWS-SUN
Photo Taken by: Tony Baker NMTXsports.com
New Mexioco Junior College women's basketball coach Drew Sanders said his team needed to refocus after it's loss to Odess College. Saturday afternnon, in front of packed Caster Activity Center, the Lady thunderbirds did just that as they obliterated Western Texas College 85-32.
"I think we played really well and I dont think they played as well as they can play," Sanders said. "We have had two or three pretty difficult days of practice since Odessa beat us and I really challenged our kids and they responded very, very well tonight."
NMJC opened the game with a 6-0 run. Western Texas scored its first points just over two minutes into the game, but that was as close as the Lady Thunderbirds would let the visitors get. NMJC followed with a 9-1 run, taking a 15-3 lead. By the end of the opening 10 minutes, the Lady Thunderbirds were comfortably in control, 23-9.
Ashley Perez had a big second quarter for NMJC, hitting three treys as the Lady Thunderbirds nearly matched their first quarter offensive output, dropping in 21 points. At the same time, NMJC's defense held Western Texas to just five points.
When the two teams went into the break, Perez had nearly as many points herself (12) as the entire Western Texas team (14) did.
NMJC's scoring picked up in the third quarter as the Lady Thunderbirds scored more than four points for every one Western Texas scored. The Lady Thunderbirds outsocred Western Texas 30-7, taking a 74-21 lead into the fourth quarter.
"Our defense was incredible," Sanders said. "To maintain that level of defense, for that long- I flet like our intensity and our focus was really, really good."
With the game well in hand, the Lady Thunderbirds scoring slowed down in the fourth, NMJC and Western Texas acutally matched each other point for point during the final 10 minutes of play. Western Texas scored the final six points of the game, but prior to those points, NMJC led by 59 with 1:20 to play.
No one player ran away with the scoring for NMJC as Sanders said it was a "team effort". The Lady Thunderbirds had 11 different players scored, three of whom scored in double figures. Daiane Machado led all scorers with 13 ponts. Perez had 12, all in the first half, and Ni'Asia McIntosh chipped in 10. Ekaterina Zhibareva and Laurynn McGowen each had eight whild Dezirae Hampton had seven and Amand Maqueia had six.
"It was a total team effort," Sanders said. "We did a lot of talking about how people come off the bench and they have to come in like they are starters and maintain the same level of intensity, and I felt like we did that very well."
Just how well did the bench do? The Lady Thunderbirds got 47 points and just over half of is 40 rebounds (21) from the bench.
"The way that we play and the way that choose to play tonight was units," Sanders said. "We basically tried to make the units fairly even. We took Ashley and Kate in the second unit to try and equal that one up. So we were really looking at 10 plyers we expected to contribute like starters."
With the win, NMJC picks up its first Western Juniro College Athletic Conference win of the season and improves to 10-3 overall. The Lady Thunderbirds will be back on the court Thursday when they travel to Salt Lake City, Utah for a game against Salt Lake City College.
"We play Salt Lake and then College of Southern Idaho (next)," Sanders said. "Both are ranked teams and it is going to be very,very tough to win on the road. We need that right now. We need tough teams. I think that hurt us against Odess because swe hadn't played enough tough games. We need to go into that and hopefully go out and play well and then go into Christmas on a high note."