HAWKS FINISH REGULAR SEASON ON A HIGH NOTE WITH HOME VICTORY

NORFOLK, Neb. – The Northeast Community College women's basketball team played in front of their home fans for the final time during the 2021-2022 regular season Wednesday night at the Cox Activities Center in Norfolk, and they were able to prevail with a 62-58 victory over Iowa Central Community College. 

The Hawks (12-18, 9-11 ICCAC) took an early 17-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and had a 33-23 at the halftime break. The Tritons put together an impressive rally in the third quarter to cut the deficit to just four entering the last 10 minutes of the showdown. The Tritons would eventually cut the lead to just one, but they were never able to get closer than that as the Hawks came out on top. 

Ashley Hassett (Hershey, Neb.) led the way for the Hawks in scoring as she was a force down low tallying 34 total points. 

STAT SHEET 

•          Ashley Hassett (Hershey, Neb.): 34 PTS, 8 REB 

•          Marta Pons (Sevilla, Spain): 10 PTS, 4 REB 

•          Autumn Dickmander (Brule, Neb.): 9 PTS, 5 REB 

HEAR FROM THE HAWKS COACH 

Assistant women's basketball coach Justin Heng's overall thoughts on the contest: 

"Just love the perseverance of all our girls," Heng said. "Can't complain about the effort. They don't ever quit. Ashely (Hassett) obviously with a really good game, but all seven of them. Ellie (Guthard) and Jaydy (Gonzalez) off the bench. It's about every one of them. I'm kind of speechless because from the beginning of the season compared to now after 30 games you have to be really pleased with how we are playing at the end of the season." 

Heng's positive takeaways from the matchup: 

"We get a good win here going into regionals in the playoffs," Heng said. "Taking that win, winning three out of our last four game, and then on top of it we're playing pretty good basketball. You can't complain about that." 

Heng's early thoughts on facing Iowa Community College next: 

"We're matching up with them again next week, so we have to realize that they're going to want to come back and get us," Heng said. "We're going to play our style of basketball. Move the ball on offense, talk on defense, and if the ball goes through the hoop good things happen. I want to see our girls take advantage of the day off we're going to have. Give them the day off tomorrow, rest, but also get in the gym and get some shots up here. We've got time now. We have about five days of no games. Get some shots up, concentrate defensively, execute what we want to do, clean our stuff up, and then go up there and hopefully get a W on Wednesday." 

UP NEXT 

The Hawks enter postseason play next against Iowa Central Community College. The game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Fort Dodge, Iowa. 

HAWKS HAPPENINGS 

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