Lady Storm Rolling into Regionals

Matt Hagemeier, Sports Reporter

The SCC Lady Storm roll into the regionals with a full head of steam, following a 58-44 win over conference rival North Platte Community College, Friday, Feb. 20, at North Platte.

The ladies finished the regular season with a 20-6 record, a 12-game winning streak, and a player who has been named Division II National Player of the Week two out of the last three weeks in Breanna Grant.

Southeast had to win or play North Platte within 14 points in order to host regionals, but got off to a slow start falling behind 9-1. The Storm battled back to take a 20-19 halftime lead despite shooting just 23 percent from the field.

“We just couldn’t hit an easy shot,” Co-Head Coach Vicki Wooton explained.

The coach was able to rally her team after halftime, hitting better than 50 percent of its shots while continuing to play solid defense on the Lady Knights.

“I just told them that as bad as we are playing we are still ahead,” Wooton said.  “We needed to focus, hit our shots, play as a team and work together.”

Dionne Martin led the Storm with 15 points. Grant added 12 points to go along with seven rebounds, and Veshae Wilkinson grabbed 13 boards.

Southeast will host the winner of the Central Community College/North Platte game (Feb. 25) on Sunday, March 1, at 1 p.m. The winner will advance to the district tournament, which will also be hosted by SCC if it wins.

Despite being ranked 14th and winners of 12 straight games, Wooton said there is plenty of room for improvement.

“We need continue to work on our defense and creating easy shots,“ she said.