LINCOLN – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team outscored Southeast Community College 47-41 in the second half to register an 89-84 South Sub-region win over the Bobcats Saturday afternoon in Lincoln.

                The win keeps the Cougars' dream alive to host a first-round playoff game. WNCC moves to 4-7 in conference play with three conference games left. WNCC is 8-19 overall.

                WNCC will next be in action on Wednesday when they host McCook Community College in the final regular-season home contest.

                WNCC head coach Roybell Baez said the McCook game is important and his team needs to duplicate what they did Saturday come Wednesday.

                "In order for us to get the win against McCook on Wednesday, we're going to need to have the same intensity we had tonight (Saturday)," Baez said. "Tonight everyone contributed in some way and we finally played a complete game."

                The Cougars played well, only giving up a few big Southeast runs, but each time, WNCC had a run of their own to come right back. Baez said they played their best defense late when it mattered the most.

                "They played really well offensively in both halves and good defense from time to time," he said. "But we played our best defense late and that's how we were able to win the game."

                The first half was a toss up between the two teams. WNCC was hot early as they led 19-10 on a Melchi Egbeyemi 3-pointer. Southeast came right back with a 17-2 run to take a 27-21 lead.

                WNCC stayed in the game as they retook the lead at 30-29 on an Amare Jackson old-fashioned 3-point play and led 42-41 late in the half on a Xavier Kirkpatrick 3-pointer. Southeast hit two free throws with 2.9 seconds left in the half for the 43-42 halftime lead.

                The second half saw WNCC take a 54-49 lead on a Noah Jones 3-pointer only to watch Southeast retake the lead 55-54. It was short-lived as the Cougars went on a 12-2 run to lead 66-57 on a Jackson old-fashioned 3-point play and back-to-back 3-pointers from Isaiah St. Preux and Kirkpatrick with 12 minutes left.

                Southeast responded with a 10-0 run to retake the lead 67-66 with 8:41 to play. WNCC followed with a 6-0 run to take the lead and then had a big 10-0 run with five minutes left to lead 84-72. That lead soon vanished as Southeast fought back to climb to within two, 86-84 with 1:13 to play. WNCC missed a 3-pointer with about 35 seconds to play and Southeast called a timeout with 30 seconds to play. Southeast put up a shot that was blocked by Noah Jones and Jones got the rebound and was fouled with 14.5 seconds to play. Jones hit both free throws for the 88-84 lead. Southeast had a chance and missed a late three and Jones was fouled and made one free throw to seal the game.

                WNCC shot 42 percent from the field and buried 11 3-pointers. Kirkpatrick had four 3-pointers while Jones and Toms Linis each had two.

                WNCC had four players in double figures, led by Jones and Jackson each with 16, followed by Viktor Lukic-Gavric with 15, and Kirkpatrick with 14.

                WNCC's final regular season home game on Wednesday will also be sophomore recognition as they recognize seven sophomores with Noah Jones, Kellon Harris, Toms Linis, Dorin Nguema, Isaiah St. Preux, Withold Czerenkiewicz, and Willie Wilson.

WNCC                42 47 – 89
Southeast          43 41 – 84
WNCC
Noah Jones 16, Amare Jackson 16, Viktor Lukic-Gavric 15, Xavier Kirkpatrick 14, Melchi Egbeyemi 9, Toms Linis 8, Isaiah St. Preux 7, Dorin Nguema 4.
SOUTHEAST
Dakarai Davis 21, Marquis Toliver 15, Arthur Videira 13, Chang Deng 7, Trey Griggs 7, Lachlin Curtin 4, Alex McCollum 4.