WEST MEMPHIS, ARK. - The Northwest Mississippi Community College women's basketball team (1-4) were victorious by a score of 72-55 over National Park College, earning Head Coach LaTaryl Williams his 100th win as a head coach.
"It means a lot," Williams said. "I didn't want to tell our players about it because I didn't want to make the game about me. That's a great milestone, but I'm hoping to be around long enough to get another 100."
From the beginning of the game, the Rangers played with an urgency that has not been seen in their first several games.
Although NWCC played more cohesively, they were still down for much of the first half. However, freshman guard Caroline Kelley sunk a three-pointer right as time ran out to cut the NPC lead to just one point.
The energy carried into the second half and beginning of the third quarter. After a series of plays where Northwest forced National Park to turn the ball over several times in a row, the Rangers started to extend their lead.
"We talked about that at half time," Williams said. "Pick up the pressure. Try to deny their wings and make it difficult for them to catch the basketball and run their offense. It gives us the opportunity to not let the defense set up and just score in transition."
Steals played a huge role in the Rangers victory. Sophomore Zoe Metcalf and freshman Grace Eatmon both had three steals and each member of the starting five recorded at least one steal.
Northwest was also able to find their rebounding groove against National Park and recorded 33 defensive rebounds and 11 offensive rebounds. Freshman Madison Holts led the Rangers in rebounding with 11.
Not only did NWCC play better defensively, they also improved their offense from previous games.
Freshman Morgan Thompson led the Rangers in scoring with 15 points and shot the ball at a 0.714 rate.
Free throws have been an issue for the Rangers at times this season. However, Northwest knocked down 16 of their 21 shots from the charity stripe in today's game, making their free throw shooting percentage 76.2% and improving on their season's average of 34.9%.
NWCC has a quick turnaround with a game against ASU-Mid South (0-4) tomorrow, Saturday, November 14 at 2:00 p.m.
"We talked about that after the game. We had a back-to-back a few weekends ago and played really well that first night and then just didn't have that same focus the second night," Williams said. "I want to see us have consistency in that area and have two games back-to-back and not have any drop off."
To stay up to date on the NWCC women's basketball team, follow the Ranger social media accounts or go to nwccrangers.com.
