Cougar notes: WNCC men pick up win over Otero

Courtesy: Mark Rein / Western Nebraska Community College

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team put three in double figures and buried 11 3-pointes enroute to an 87-78 South sub-region win over Otero College Thursday at Cougar Palace.

The win moved the Cougars to 3-6 in the conference standings but more importantly, it was a confidence win for the Cougar players after WNCC fell to Trinidad State 74-72 Wednesday on a buzzer-beating shot.

“We need this win, not only to for in the conference, but to boost our confidence,” Noah Jones, the sophomore who had 11 points in the win, said. “We knew that e were still a really good team even with all our losses. So, this is just proof to us of what we are and what we can do.”

Jones said the team got the win because they played together as a unit.

“The team played together and coach always preaches to us that togetherness is gonna win the game and today, we felt like we put together a complete performance,” he said. “It’s was like a little bit off on defense in the second half, but that’s something that we can clean up.

WNCC took the lead for goo at 21-18 and never allowed a tie the rest of the way and that was something that the team can build off.

“That was really huge for us, knowing that we can close out games,” he said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games that we were unable to close out, so this one just felt good to us.”

WNCC head coach Roybell Baez said he was brought of the way his team came out tonight and got the win, especially after all the near misses they have experienced in conference this year.

“Honestly man, any win is big, especially in conference and we’ve been kind of in the dumps especially after losing another buzzer-beater last night (Wednesday) and I think that our guys showed a lot of fight and a lot of grit and kudos to them,” he said.

The tenacity the Cougars showed to stay with Otero and not give up the lead for much of the game was the impressive thing that Baez took from the game.

“I can’t tell you what the leads were or anything. All I know is that we won and our guys played really, really hard and coming off of back-to-back games is really tough,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you don’t ever know what’s going to happen on night two, but if you go look back, we won at Trinidad and lost at Otero, then we lose to Trinidad and we beat Otero. It’s just a rollercoaster ride? And it’s about who stays the course.

Otero started hot, taking an 8-3 lead to start. WNCC came back and score eight straight on 3-pointers by Isaiah St. Preux and Xavier Kirkpatrick. Otero tied the game at 11 and then at 16 and one last time at 18. After that, Toms Linis buried a 3-pointer to put the Cougars up 21-18 and WNCC went on a 16-2 run to lead 32-20. WNCC led 34-24 at intermission.

The second half was one where both teams would only go on mini five or six point runs. WNCC led 56-41 after a Viktor Lukic-Gavric bucket and went up 61-47 on a Kirkpatrick 3-pointer and a Witold Czerenkiewicz field goal.

Otero came back to make it a 66-59 deficit with 7:11 to play. WNCC didn’t fold as they worked to get the lead back to 14 points at 79-65 on a Melchi Egbeyemi 3-pointer with 2:35 to play. From there, the two teams exchanged buckets. The tide was turned when Lukic-Gavric had back-to-back thundering dunks and then Dorin Nguema had a dunk with about a minute to play. Kellon Harris closed out the night with a dunk with 21 seconds to play that solidified the win.

WNCC shot 46 percent from the field and made 11 3-pointers. Otero was 41 percent from the field and made just seven treys.

The Cougars had balanced scoring as Harris led the way with 18 points including four 3-pointers, while Lukic-Gavric had 15 points with seven assists. Jones added 11 ponts.

WNCC will hope to ride the win next week when they hit the road for two games. WNCC will travel to Lamar Community College on Wednesday before taking off for Lincoln to face Southeast Community College.

Otero 24 54 – 78

WNCC 34 53 – 87

OTERO

Bertran Walthour 27, Jayson Lewis 10, Jye Barlow 7, Cole Corner 7, Kaylan Graham 6, Ray Gasaway 5, Nedum Chiadika 4, Sam Webb 4, Tamir Anderson 3, Felix Gasana 2.

WNCC

Kellon Harris 18, Viktor Lukic-Gavric 15, Noah Jones 11, Isaiah St. Preux 9, Xavier Kirkpatrick 8, Melchi Egbeyemi 6, Dorin Nguema 6, Toms Linis 3, Withold Czerenkiewicz 2.

WNCC women never trail in win over Otero

Celina Donyo and Zozefine Sipolina each had 17 points and the Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team scored 27 first quarter points enroute to a 66-59 win over Otero College Thursday evening at Cougar Palace.

The win moves the Cougars to 7-2 in the South sub-region and 17-8 overall. Otero drops to 5-3 in the conference and 6-16 overall.

Sipolina said it was a great win especially playing like they did in the first quarter.

“The team played very well together,” the sophomore said. “That start set the tone for the game. That is our standard.”

WNCC will have close to a week off as they will have two sub-region contests next week on the road when they travel to Lamar Community College on Wednesday and then Southeast Community College in Lincoln on Saturday.

WNCC started the contest well, scoring the first four points and holding a 13-6 lead in the opening quarter. WNCC had a 23-12 lead and went on to lead after the opening 10 minutes 27-16.

WNCC scored the first six points of the second quarter and led 33-16 in the first two minutes. After that, the Cougar scoring went south and Otero outscored the Cougars 8-5 the rest of the way. WNCC led at halftime 38-24.

Otero outscored the Cougars 15-10 in the third quarter, but the Cougars never did relinguish the lead as WNCC had answer to every run. WNCC led 48-39 at the end of the quarter after a Sipolina 3-pointer.

The fourth quarter saw Otero get to within three, 53-50 with five minutes to play. WNCC went on a 7-0 run that was highlighted by a bucket from Donyo and Charisma Johnson and a 3-pointer from Sipolina to make it 60-50 with 3:30 to play.

Otero answered with a 7-0 run to make it 60-57 with two minutes to play. WNCC sealed the win as Johnson made 2-of-4 free throws with under 45 seconds to play for the win.

WNCC shot just 35 precent from the field and were 6-of-21 from the 3-point arc. Otero shot 40 percent, but were just 3-of-20 from the 3-point line. The Cougars were 12-of-18 from the free throw line while Otero was just 6-of-7.

WNCC won the rebound battle 51-37. Veralyn Aviles led the team with 10 rebounds while Sipolina had eight.

Otero 16 8 15 20 – 59

WNCC 27 11 10 18 – 66

OTERO

Itxasne Fernandez Arguello 18, Brooklyn Kaiser 8, Ariadna Pastor Gusta 8, Candela Roy Ibaibarriaga 8, Kaelani Albert-Neha 7, Dayshanay Bruner 5, Haley Lang 3, Aspen Autry 2.

WNCC

Celina D onyo 17, Zozefine Sipolina 17, Charisma Johnson 10, Juseana-Rae Delatori 8, Veralyn Aviles 7, Aniaya Burton-Hernandez 5, Ella Chesta-Carty 2.