The 19th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team put three in double figures and used a fast start to topple Laramie County Community College Monday evening at Cougar Palace.

                The 93-48 win over the Golden Eagles was the Cougars ninth of the season as it was WNCC’s third game in four days.

                WNCC freshman Ky Buell, a Cheyenne East graduate, said they played better this game against LCCC than the first time they faced the Golden Eagles a couple weeks ago.

                “I thought we played good. I thought we played better than we played them last time,” Buell said. “I think we started off better than we did the last couple games. I think we came out and competed well.”

                Those fast starts really set the tone of the games and Buell said it is important to start strong.

                “You can tell it [starting strong] is a different mentality when we start strong compared to when we have to come back out and from halftime and get ourselves back together,” Buell said. “I think it is a lot harder for teams to get up on us mentally if we start out strong and then we can keep pushing from there.” 

                The women’s game was all WNCC as the Cougars had a hot first quarter, starting with a 6-0 run and pushed the lead to 21-4 behind five points from Shanti Henry, including a trey. WNCC led after the first quarter 27-6 as Buell, Martrice Brooks, and Ashley Panem each scored.

                The second quarter saw WNCC outscore LCCC 23-12 including a 11-0 run that pushed the lead to 44-12. WNCC led 50-15 before settling for a 50-18 halftime lead.

                The third quarter was even as both teams scored 15 points as WNCC led 65-33 after 30 minutes of play.

                The fourth quarter saw WNCC open things up as they went up 76-37 on a Buell trey and then pushed the lead to 86-39 after going on a 10-0 run that was highlighted by five points from Madison Blaney. WNCC cruised to the win.

                WNCC shot 46 percent from the field and connected on seven 3-pointers, led by Payton Fields with two treys. LCCC shot 31 percent and had just five treys.

                WNCC had three in double figures. Alejah Douglas led the way with 19 points, including going 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. Lidsey Mahoukou finished with 18 points while Buell had 11 points.

                The Cougar women will be back in action Friday at Cougar Palace when they start South Sub-region when McCook Community College comes calling for a women’s and men’s doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m.

                Buell said they will use these next days off to continue practicing and resting their bodies.

                “We are going to take care of our bodies, get back in the gym and put in a lot of work so we can keep competing,” she said.

Women’s Game

LCCC                      6 12 15 15 – 48

WNCC (9-2)         27 23 15 27 – 92

LCCC

Ariadria Bleda 5, Anna Terron 1, Lucia Fleta 12, Mylie Tarnowski 4, Carla Caire Aguilar 7, Kaysen Hobbs 5, Ximena Gutierrez 2, Abby Garreaud 12.

WNCC

Alejah Douglas 19, Ky Buell 11, Martrice Brooks 8, Shanti Henry 7, Ashley Panem 5, Payton Fields 8, Maddy Campbell 4, Madison Blaney 7, Emma Johnson 5, Lidsey Mahoukou 18.

Late free throws give WNCC win over LCCC

               The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team hit late free throws from Ogallala’s Carter Brown in giving the Cougar men a hard-fought 83-79 win over Laramie County Community College Monday evening at Cougar Palace.

                Brown nailed 4-or-4 free throws in the final 15 seconds to seal the win for the Cougars and giving WNCC their fifth win of the season.

                The Cougar men will have little time to rest as they head to Central Wyoming College Tuesday night for a men’s only game. Tuesday’s contest will be WNCC’s fourth game in five days.

                WNCC coach Billy Engel said his team did enough right things to get the win.

                “We played hard the whole game, but we didn’t play hard enough on the defensive end early,” Engel said. “I thought that got us in a little bit in a hole. When we don’t play hard defensively, we aren’t quite as good offensively. I thought in the second half we played a lot harder defensively, played a lot harder on the glass, and had more open looks. Credit Laramie County, they got open looks and hit open looks. That is how the game goes sometimes.”

                The game was a shootout between WNCC and LCCC, who went to overtime a couple weeks ago with the Golden Eagles coming out on top 109-108. This time around, there would be no overtime as Brown hit 4-of-4 free throws down the stretch to help WNCC to the 83-79 win.

                As much as the ending was climatic, the entire game was a barnburner. WNCC started strong, leading 16-8, but the Golden Eagles came back to tie the game at 16-16. LCCC never could get the lead in the opening 20 minutes as WNCC led 38-29.

                The second half saw a back and forth contest. LCCC took the lead at 57-56. It was short-lived as WNCC came back and went up 68-61 as Brown nailed a trey and then converted three free throws after being fouled on a 3-pointer.

                WNCC pushed the lead to 73-65 on a Issad Solano bucket. LCCC wasn’t finished as they sliced the lead to 75-72 with 1:46 to play. Agwa Nywesh nailed a trey to put WNCC back up 78-72 only to watch get back to within four at 80-76.

                Nywesh hit one free throw with 10.5 seconds to go for an 81-76 lead. Erik Oliver came back to hit a trey with 1.6 seconds to cut the lead to two. Brown sealed the win as Brown nailed two free throws with 1.6 seconds to play.

                WNCC had five players in double figures. Solano and Chase Thompson each had 15 points. Solano had three treys. Brown finished with 13 points with two 3-pointers and a perfect 7-of-7 from the line. Tyler Mack also had 12 points with two treys and Nywesh had 10 points.

                WNCC shot 40 percent from the field and buried 10 treys. LCCC shot 39 percent from the field with 13 3-pointers.

                Engel said his team will have to be ready to go another night as it will be the fourth time in five nights they will have played. The Cougar men will face Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyoming, on Tuesday before coming home to start South Sub-region play on Friday against McCook Community College.

                Engel said they need these types of games in back-to-back contests for regional tournament time in April.

                “Four games in five days is something we talked about a little bit going into this stretch here,” Engel said. “It is exactly what we need. We knew it was going to be a shortened season where we had to get a lot of games in a short about of days. We need to expect something like this and when it comes regional tournament time, the goal is to win three games in three days. This is exactly what we need right now.”

Men’s Game

LCCC                      29 50 – 79

WNCC                   38 45 – 83

LCCC

Erik Oliver 33, Arion Lewis 12, Ashraf Tchadonuwa 8, Nolan Causwell 3, Xavier McCord 7, Marko Maletic 16.

WNCC

Carter Brown 13, Chase Thompson 15, Tayler Johnson 9, Tyler Mack 12, Agwa Nywesh 10, Issad Solano 15, Them Koang 9.