Article by Sally Sexton
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The Weatherford College Lady Coyotes were already right in the thick of their conference.

After Wednesday night's dominating 69-49 romp of McLennan Community College, the Lady Coyotes (5-2) are in a much better position in NTJCAC.

"After Saturday, we'll be half through with the conference and our goal after those first couple of losses was to finish the half 6-2," Weatherford head coach Bob McKinley said. "We thought we'd have a really, really good chance to win the whole thing."

The McLennan Highlassies jumped out to the game's first marginal lead after two costly WC turnovers put McLennan up 14-10.

The Lady Coyotes jumped right back in front by a point after Saule Kontoutaite nailed a 3-pointer.

Each team would battle for the lead, but the Lady Coyotes came out on top after consecutive trips down the court yielded five points, with a 27-24 advantage.

McLennan had one more run to tie the game before Weatherford pulled away at halftime to outdistance itself 33-29 at halftime.

Monique Burnham led the scoring at the half with 12 points.

The Lady Coyotes got off to a sloppy start in the second half, committing five turnovers in the first three minutes.

Despite the errors, Burnham had a layup to keep Weatherford up 37-31. The Lady Coyotes slowly began to pull away as Burnham put WC up by double figures and Kasondra Foreman's hookshot added, to make it 44-31 with 13:52 left.

The Highlassies were able to crawl back to within seven points, but the Lady Coyotes caught fire, rattling off six straight points to build a 14-point deficit with seven minutes remaining.

It looked like Weatherford would suffer a loss when Burnham, who finished with a game-high 22 points, fouled out with almost three minutes left, but her teammates picked up the slack and Kontoutaite hit a 3-pointer right after.

"That [shot] just kind of boosted us up to where we didn't really need [Burnham]," McKinley said. "Burnham is just an unbelievable athlete."

With the mixture of a defense that held its opponent to a 20-point deficit in the end, and an offense that scored 69 points, McKinley said he was pleased with his team's execution.

"We're playing a little better and sharing the ball a little better, and those things help us as we move on through the conference," the Weatherford coach said. "One of the things that really helped us in the second half was that we got more aggressive on the boards."

Post players Krystal Jefferson and Monica Gill combined for 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Weatherford will play at Grayson College Saturday at 2 p.m.

WC 69, MCC 49
MCC      29        20    ‹    49
WC        33        36    ‹    69

MCC ‹ Nicole Walton, 15; Shedera Bowman, 7; Katie Pavlik, 5; Macy Wischmeier, 7; Gabrielle Guzman, 4; Nikkitti Scott, 6; Laura Castleberry, 5.
WC ‹ Saule Kontoutaite, 10; Monica McGill, 1; Monique Burnham, 22; Kayla Guidry, 5; Krystal Jefferson, 15; Kasondra Foreman, 4; Egidija Busaite, 5; Brittani Wilkins, 7.
3-Pointers: M ‹ Walton, Pavlik, Wischmeier. W ‹ Kontoutaite (2), Jefferson, Busaite.