Charisma Johnson and Ella Chesta-Carty combined for 42 points and the Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team remained perfect in the South Sub-region with an 82-65 win over Southeast Community College on Saturday.

                The Cougars opened up a tight game with strong second and third quarters to forge to the win.

                WNCC head coach Ryan Davis said his team played well in the win.

                "I thought we played really well," Davis said. "I told them that last quarter, you can kind of throw some of that away because, through my coaching career, when you're up that much, it's a little bit hard to stay locked in and tend to let things slip away when you know the game is in hand. So, I think for three quarters and then another quarter of the last one, we were very locked in. We executed everything really well."

                A big key was the team's shooting, especially in the first half where the team buried all seven of their 3-pointers.

                "(The first half was probably well played) and really, the second half, too. We started going away from plays that would give us a three," Davis said. "We kind of found a weakness of theirs. One of their guards couldn't really guard Charisma, so we kept going at her and took away some of those three opportunities. But, when you get a 20-point lead going into the half, it's really big. We obviously had Juseana hit a three, Zo hit three 3s, and Ella hit three 3s in the first half and that's just going to bury people."
                WNCC put four players in double figures in the win. Johnson led the way with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting along with seven rebounds followed by Chesta-Carty with 20 points and three threes and eight rounds. Zozefine Sipolina had 15 points, three 3-pointers, and eight rebounds, while Aniaya Burton-Hernandez had 12 points.

                "We had four people in double figures and then out of those four, I think they probably shot close to or over 50 percent," Davis said. "So very efficient. We were at on two games in a row where above one point per possession, which is excellent. I think that if we keep doing that and sharing the ball and then we kind of pick apart certain matchups that we can exploit, then it might be one person one day, it might be another on a different day because of the match-ups problems."

                The first quarter of Saturday's contest was actually a contest. WNCC jumped to an 8-2 lead after 3-pointers by Sipolina and Chesta-Carty. Southeast came back with a 9-0 run to take an 11-8 lead. WNCC tied it with a Sipolina triple, but the Bobcats went ahead 14-11 with a three of their own and went ahead 15-13. WNCC came back when Chesta-Carty hit a three and Burton-Hernandez had a bucket for an 18-16 lead.

                Southeast tied it at 18-18, but WNCC scored the final four points of the quarter for a 22-18 lead.

                WNCC opened the second quarter with a 12-4 run that included a triple from Chesta-Carty and an old-fashioned 3-point play by Johnson. The play of the quarter, though, came from Sipolina as she missed a 3-pointer but immediately hustled after the miss, got the rebound and put the ball back in the hope for a bucket for a 10-point lead at 32-22.

                WNCC kept executing as they went on an 11-2 run to lead 43-24 on a Chesta-Carty 3-pointer. WNCC led at halftime 48-28 on a Juseana-Rae Delatori 3-pointer as they outscored the Bobcats 26-10 in the frame.

                The second half saw WNCC build a 25-point lead at 60-35 and led 63-39 at the end of the quarter on a Johnson old-fashioned 3-point play.

                WNCC opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run that saw Burton-Hernandez score the first six points and then Chesta-Carty drove the lane for another two points and a 71-39 lead. After that, the Cougars were outscored 26-11 but never were threatened.

                WNCC, 13-6 overall and 3-0 in the conference, will be on the road next weekend for a pair of conference games at Trinidad State College on Friday and then Otero College on Saturday. Then, on Wednesday, January 28, the Cougars will travel to face McCook Community College. McCook is tied with the Cougars at 3-0 in the conference right now.

Southeast                        18 10 11 26 – 65
WNCC (13-6)                 22 26 15 19 – 82
SOUTHEAST
Jasmine McKenzie 16, Makayla Lemelle 14, Aleviah Anderson 9, Tatym Dempcy 9, Brooklyn Pierce 8, Kyra Wooden 5, Aleziah Anderson 2, Jada Jackson 2.
WNCC
Charisma Johnson 22, Ella Chesta-Carty 20, Zozefine Sipolina 15, Veralyn Aviles 6, Juseana-Rae Delatori 5, Celina Donyo 2.