ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team gave No. 12 Cowley County Community College a run battle in the first half before the Tigers earned the 80-58 win Friday night.

                WNCC held a 10-9 lead with 14:22 to play on an Isaiah St. Preux bucket. Cowley came back to go up 15-10 and later 23-17 with 7:58 to play in the opening half.

                The Cougars battled back as they sliced the deficit to one, 23-22, on an Amare Jackson bucket. Jackson later put the Cougars on top 24-23 with a layup with 5:50 to play. WNCC would be held scoreless for a good three minutes before Nehemiah Charles made three free throw to make it 30-27 with 2:08 left in the opening half. Cowley went on to lead 34-29 at halftime.

                WNCC hung with Cowley for the first three minutes of the second half. The Tigers went up by double digits at 41-30 with 17:47 to play. WNCC got back to within six on a Viktor Lukic-Gavric 3-pointer and then a dunk by Amare Jackson. Neither team would score in a 3-minute span before Cowley scored with 13:28 to play.

                WNCC had the contest to just six points at one time, but Cowley pushed the lead back to double digits. WNCC was held scoreless for a 4-minute span before Lukic-Gavric finally scored with an old-fashioned 3-point play with 4:45 to play to make it 69-50 and that was as close as the Cougars would get.

                WNCC shot 35 percent from the field while Cowley was 45 percent. Both teams connected on six 3-pointers. Cowley had the rebounding edge at 43-25.

                The Cougars had two in double figures as Lukic-Gavric and St. Preux each had 12 points with two 3-pointers. Jackson led the team in rebounding with six boards to go with his nine points.

                WNCC will be back in action Saturday when they face Butler Community College in the Cowley Classic.

Cowley 80, WNCC 58
WNCC                29 29 – 58
Cowley               34 46 – 80
WNCC
Xavier Kirkpatrich 4, Viktor Lukic-Gavric 12, Amare Jackson 9, Toms Linis 6, Dorin Nguema 2, Noah Jones 3, Melchi Egbeyemi 3, Isaiah St. Preux 12, Withold Czerenkiewicz 2, Nehemiah Charles 4, Ocean Brobbey 1.