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MILES CITY, Mont. - The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team are headed back to the national tournament after topping No. 12-ranked Miles Community College 51-48 in the Region IX championship game. It will be the Cougars fifth trip to the national tournament in six years. Last season, the Cougars fell to Casper College in the title game. This season, though, WNCC's win over the Pioneers snapped a 43-game home streak for Miles City. The win was also the Cougars 13^th straight win to push the Cougars record to 30-4 on the season. WNCC practically led from start to finish in the game. The Cougars held a 24-18 halftime lead. Miles City tied the contest only twice in the second half, but never could take the lead. In fact, the Cougars held a couple of nine-point leads in the second half, once at 39-30 on a Dana Iverson 3-pointer and then 41-32 on a Shaquilah Davis bucket. Miles sliced the lead to 47-46 with three minutes to play, but the Cougars defense was too strong as Tawny Drexler made a clutch bucket with 1:30 to play followed by two free throws by Emma Beddome with 52 seconds to play. Miles cut the lead to 51-48 with 45 seconds to play on two free throws by Jenna Bolstad, but couldn't get any closer as the Cougars defense clamped down on the Pioneers. Davis led the Cougars with 10 points followed by Iverson, Beddome and Drexler with eight points each. The Cougars connected on five 3-pointers, including two each from Beddome and Iverson. Also, Beddome and Chelsea Lyles each were selected to the All-Region IX team. WNCC (30-4) 24 27 - 51 Miles City (31-2) 18 30 - 48 MILES COMMUNITY COLLEGE Eboni Sweat 7, Sarah McNamee 6, Stephanie Dana 1, Kristen Brady 9, Ashley Oliver 5, Beata Bak 3, Jenna Bolstad 7, Marta Micula 10. WESTERN NEBRASKA Dana Iverson 8, Emma Beddome 8, Shaquilah Davis 10, Alison Cheney 7, Tawny Drexler 8, Jenna Colwell 4, Chelsea Lyles 4, Carly Glisan 2.
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