The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team have been battling the injury and illness bug the last couple of games and the result showed as the Cougars shot just 32 percent from the field and 11 percent (2-of-19) from beyond the arc in falling to North Platte Community College 63-60 Sunday afternoon at Cougar Palace in a South Sub-region contest.

                The win drops the Cougars to 5-2 in the South Sub-region while North Platte goes to 3-4. The last time the Cougars lost to North Platte was in 1984-85 and the two teams didn't play each other from 2009-10 season until renewing the rivalry in 2021-22 according to former NPCC sports information guru Mike Douty.

                WNCC will have a couple days to heal up as they will host Trinidad State College and Otero College on Wednesday and Thursday of this week in sub-region contests.

                Sunday's contest was one where the Cougars started slow and found their groove after halftime.

                The first quarter saw North Platte bolt to a 12-4 lead and led 15-7 after a 3-pointer by Allyah Herron. WNCC finished off the quarter with six straight points, all from freshman Verlyn Aviles to trail 15-13.

                It was a 17-16 North Platte lead early. After neither team scored for close to two minutes, North Platte finally went on a 9-0 run to lead 26-16. After that, the teams exchanged buckets and WNCC trailed at halftime 30-22.

                North Platte scored the first bucket of the third quarter for a 10-point lead. That was when the Cougars found their groove, going on a 15-0 run that was highlighted by two Zozefine Sipolina free throws with 6:12 to play to tie the game at 32-32. Juseana-Rae Delatori put the Cougars in front for the first time with a bucket at 5:44 and the Cougars and Cougars would get three more points from Celina Donyo for the 37-32 lead.

                The two squads exchanged buckets after that and WNCC led after three quarters 43-41.

                WNCC led 46-41 to start the fourth only to watch North Platte score seven unanswered points for a 48-46 lead. The knights went up 58-52 with about two minutes to play. WNCC came back and tied the game at 58-58 on an Aviles bucket with 41 seconds to play.

                North Platte's Reece Yahn hit two free throws with 43.2 seconds on the clock for the 60-58 lead. WNCC missed a shot and the Knights came down and made two points for a 62-58 lead. The Cougars' Aviles was fouled with 21.1 seconds and made two free throws to make it 62-60. North Platte's Herron hit one of two free throws for a 63-60 lead. WNCC turned the ball over with 11.9 seconds to play. WNCC had to foul and they did and North Platte missed both charity tosses but got the rebound and was fouled again. Again, the Cougars fouled and the Knights missed two more free throws and WNCC got the rebound with 8.8 seconds to play. The Cougars then missed a tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Knights the win.

                WNCC played just seven players because of injuries while several players are still recovering from illness. Aviles led the Cougars with 18 points followed by Charisma Johnson with 15 and Celina Donyo with 14.

North Platte                     15 15 11 22 – 63
WNCC                             13 9 21 17 – 60
NORTH PLATTE
Allyah Herron 21, Zally Mazarin 12, Dezirae Gonzalez 10, Alexa Stevens 6, Breonna Shelby 4, Kyenna Jackson 4, Ligia Thortvedt 2, Reece Vahn 2, Abigail Haas 2.
WNCC
Veralyn Aviles 18, Charisma Johnson 15, Celina Donyo 14, Juseana-Rae Delatori 8, Zozefine Sipolina 5.