GILLETTE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team got 18 points from Veralyn Aviles and the Cougars captured their fourth straight win with a 67-52 win over Dawson Community College Thursday in the Holiday Inn Express Invitational in Gillette, Wyoming.
The Cougars, 8-4, will be back in action Friday in the Classic as they play Colorado Northwestern Community College at 4 p.m. CNCC lost to Gillette College 74-42. The other game of the invite saw College of Southern Idaho 73-64. WNCC will play CSI Saturday afternoon.
Thursday’s win saw the Cougars shoot 40 percent from the field and bury four 3-pointers. The Cougars defense allowed 30 percent shooting for the Bucs where they only made 19 percent of their 3-pointers (4-of-27).
WNCC was led by three in double figures. Aviles led the team with 18 points, including going 8-of-10 from the charity stripe. The freshman guard also had seven rebounds, five assists, and four steals.
Juseana-Rae Delatori tallied 15 points with three 3-pointers and five rebounds, while Zozefine Sipolina had 10 points with six rebounds.
WNCC out-rebounded the Bucs 43-24. Charisma Johnson had nine boards for the Cougars.
WNCC led from start to finish in the contest. WNCC built a 7-0 lead before Dawson scored their first bucket with 6:08 to play in the first quarter. WNCC led 17-12 after one period.
The second quarter saw Dawson cut the deficit to 19-17. The Cougars responded with a 15-2 run that saw WNCC lead 34-19. The Cougars led 38-24 at halftime.
The third quarter saw Dawson outscore WNCC 30-12 and cut the 14-point halftime deficit to just two points with two minutes to play. WNCC answered back as the Cougars outscored Dawson 5-1 to close the third period up 50-44.
The fourth quarter saw the Cougars build the lead to 56-44 and led 64-46 on a Delatori 3-pointer. WNCC never looked back after that to claim the 67-52 win.

WNCC 17 21 12 17 – 67
Dawson 12 12 20 8 – 52
WNCC
Juseana-Rae Delatori 15, Celina Donyo 7, Veralyn Aviles 18, Charisma Johnson 4, Zozefine Sipolina 10, Ruth Lively 3, Aniaya Burton-Hernandez 7, Brynn Sybrant 3.