The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team held Lamar Community College to just 23 first-half points. The second half was a different story as Lamar scored 52 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer by Ahmed Cisse with 2.7 seconds left to get the South Sub-region win over the Cougars 75-72.
It was the third straight game where the Cougars lost with an opponent's shot in the final 10 seconds. Even with the loss, though, WNCC head coach Roybell Baez said he was proud of the way his team competed, playing hard for the entire 40 minutes. Baez said they just need to find a way to close out a game.
"It's college basketball and I'm in there trying to make sure these dudes don't fall apart because they wanted this game really bad. You can tell by how hard we're playing that it matters and it means something," Baez said. "You know, sometimes the basketball just doesn't fall your way. I am actually really proud of our guys. I thought that tonight was a night where they fought together. They put together a bunch of really good runs and we had a shot to win the game and we didn't. So, the next step for us is figuring out how to close games because we had an opportunity to win tonight and we didn't."
It was a win the Cougars played strong. WNCC allowed just one run over four points and that was early in the second half when Lamar went on a 8-0 run. Other than that, WNCC played tough and battled right along with Lamar.
The two squads combined for 40 fouls and 52 free throw attempts. The two teams also combined for 83 rebounds with Lamar winning that total 47-36.
WNCC did win the 3-point battle as they made 10 3-pointers to just three for Lamar. But, the triple that mattered the most came from Cisse with 2.7 seconds left. After that made 3-pointer, WNCC tried to make a long pass that sailed out of bounds and Lamar got the ball right back. WNCC had to foul and RJ Foreman made one of two free throws to seal the win with 1.9 seconds left. A three-quarters of a court shot at the buzzer hit the rim but wouldn't go in.
With the way the team played, Baez couldn't be prouder of their effort against a bigger squad than the Cougars.
"I thought our guys were flying around and the press was working," Baez said. "We got a bunch of steals and we were playing transition. In the second half, they did a really good job of getting downhill and putting pressure on the rim. You know it came back to bite us because they're huge. You saw how much bigger they were than us and they just kept going inside. We had no answer for them."
WNCC will have little time to rest as they will play their fourth game in eight days when they host Southeast Community College on Saturday. The women's game starts at 1 p.m. with the men's game to follow.
Baez said that will not be an easy game either because Southeast has a good squad and his team will need to be ready.
"Southeast is really, really good, too, and it's going to be a real test for us and we will see how we show up," he said. "Can you respond or you feel sorry for yourself. There's no time to feel sorry for yourself."
Lamar started the game up 4-0 and led 15-13 with about 10 minutes left in the opening half. That was when WNCC went on a 10-0 run that was spearheaded by 3-pointers by Kellon Harris and Xavier Kirkpatrick and an eye-popping dunk by Noah Jones for a 23-15 lead. WNCC kept that lead as they led 34-23 going into intermission.
The second half saw WNCC lead 41-30. That was when Lamar went on their biggest run of eight points to make it a 41-38 lead. Lamar took their first lead since the first with 12L18 play on a bucket by Foreman at 48-47. WNCC answered as they went back up by eight at 56-48 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Viktor Lukic-Gavric and Noah Jones.
Lamar tied the game at 62-62 with five minutes to play, but the Cougars responded with a 5-0 run that saw Harris grab an offensive rebound and put the ball back in the bucket for a 67-62 lead. WNCC led 69-65 with three minutes to play. Lamar tied the game at 69 with 2:06 to play.
WNCC went back in front 70-69 on one made free throw. Lamar went ahead at 71-70 with 49 seconds left. WNCC went in front on a Jones bucket with 14 seconds to play and it seemed WNCC was going to get the win. That was when Cisse hit the 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds left for the go-ahead and game-winner.
WNCC had four players in double figures, led by Jones with 17 points with two 3-pointers. Kirkpatrick and Harris each had 12 points while Linis had 10. Kirkpatrick had three 3-pointers while Harris had two.
Lamar 23 52 – 75
WNCC 34 38 – 72
LAMAR
Ahmed Cisse 19, RJ Foreman 16, Christian Payawal 13, Gavin Dabney 10, La'Quince York 10, Donovan Dabney 10.
WNCC
Noah Jones 17, Xavier Kirkpatrick 12, Kellon Harris 12, Toms Linis 10, Isaiah St. Preux 8, Viktor Lukic-Gavric 7, Melchi Egheyemi 4, Dorin Nguema 2.