Pronghorn women make school history, advance to semifinals

Scottsbluff, Neb.--After an ugly win against Northeastern Junior College on Monday afternoon, the #3 Gillette College Pronghorn women looked to tighten the ship in the quarterfinal game of the Region IX tournament against #7 Miles Community College. The Pronghorn women defeated the Lady Pioneers both times the two teams met in the regular season. They were able to do it a third time, with a 65-48 victory, and move to the semifinal round of the tournament for the first time in school history.

The Pronghorns found themselves down, 12-6 with 13:02 to go in the first half, which forced Head Coach Will Rider to call a timeout. Up to that point, the Pronghorns shots were hitting the rim, but not finding the net. The Lady Pioneers did a good job of boxing out Gillette College under the basket.

The Lady Pioneers were able to make high percentage shots to get to a 21-13 lead with 8:52 to go in the half. Halli Stocklin for Gillette came in to the game off the bench and sank two big triples to give some momentum for the Pronghorns. Keke Wright tied it up at 23 for Gillette College, off a floater in the paint. The Lady Pioneers answered quickly, by taking back the lead.

With 34.4 seconds remaining in the half, and Gillette down 29-26, Kiela Garner made a three from outside the arc on the left side. On the next play, Freya Newton stole the ball from Miles in the Pronghorns front court. Wright was fouled trying to make a shot from 13 feet away in the paint. She made one of two from the line to give Gillette College their first lead since it was 2-0 at the start of the game. It was 30-29, with Gillette on top, as the teams headed into the locker room.

There were five turnovers in less than 40 seconds to start the second half. Alicia Carline got the first points of the second stanza, both from the charity stripe. That was the start of a 6-0 run for the Pronghorns. Miles Community College rattled off three out of four free throws from the line, but Stocklin responded with a triple from the right side.

The Lady Pioneers were able to cut it down to seven points later in the half, but Gillette College started running away from Miles. The Pronghorns led by as many as 22 points, at 59-37 with less than seven minutes to go in the game.

Gillette College will play #5 Northwest College on Wednesday at 5pm. The Pronghorns split their games against the Lady Trappers in the Regular season. They lost to Northwest, 96-79, on Jan. 23^rd, in Powell. They got the win at home, 65-52, in the last regular season game of the year, on Feb. 23^rd. You can watch the game at http://www.ihigh.com/wncc.