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 on 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 we 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. "We were 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 good 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 points.
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.