T-Birds Lose Region IX Tournament Title Game
The Casper College women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaking 94-89 overtime decision to Otero in the Region IX tournament championship game on Saturday in La Junta, Colorado.
Both teams had opportunities to win the game at the end of regulation but Otero took over in the extra session to hand the T-Birds their first loss of the season. Casper didn't help themselves at the free-throw line going just 13-22 but they did connect on 14, 3 pointers in the contest. The Thunderbirds were led in scoring by Natalia Otkmmezuri with 21 points and she nailed 5, 3 pointers in the game. Kobe King-Hawea chipped in 21 points on 8-21 from the field. Otero was led by Emma Florez-Pascual who poured in 28 points along with 14 rebounds. The Rattlers rang up 54 points in the paint in this game.
Casper was ranked #3 in the country entering the tournament and has a record of 22-1. That was good enough to earn an at-large bid to the Women's National Tournament that will be in Lubbock, Texas from April the 19th through the 24th. Not only that, Casper was seeded 8th and earned a 1st round bye. So they'll meet the winner of the Three Rivers/Eastern Oklahoma game on April 20th. Three Rivers is the 9th seed and Eastern Oklahoma is the 24th seed. This will be the 2nd straight year that Casper College has qualified for nationals. Last year's championship tournament was canceled due to the pandemic.
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