NORTH PLATTE – The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team only scored eight fourth-quarter points as North Platte Community College outscored the Cougars 37-24 in the second half to claim a 69-66 South Sub-region win Saturday afternoon.

                The loss drops the Cougars to 9-4 in the sub-region, two games behind leading Lamar Community College, who is 10-2 after their 56-51 win over Otero College Saturday.

                WNCC has one more conference game left, and that is next Saturday at Northeastern Junior College. NJC is 5-8 in the conference after beating McCook Community College 71-58 on Saturday.

                Lamar has a home-and-away series with Southeast Community College next week. Lamar needs just one win to win the South Sub-region, which would make the Cougars host a first-round playoff game March 6 or 7.

                Saturday's game was a tale of two halves. The Cougars played well in the first half as they were tied with North Platte at 6-6 and then went on a 10-0 run to lead 16-6. North Platte, however, closed out the first quarter on a 7-2 run as WNCC led 18-13.

                The second quarter saw WNCC score 24 points and led 35-24 with a 7-0 run on a 3-pointer by Juseana-Rae Delatori and buckets by Veralyn Aviles and Ella Chesta-Carty. WNCC had a 42-30 lead after a Zozefine Sipolina bucket in the closing minute. WNCC led at half 42-32.

                WNCC had a 46-34 third-quarter lead after Sipolina nailed her fourth 3-pointer of the game. Things changed after that as North Platte went on an 11-2 run to trail 48-45. WNCC came back to lead 58-50 at the end of three quarters.

                The fourth quarter saw the Cougars only hit two field goals in the whole quarter. Aviles got the first one early on an old-fashioned 3-point play to lead 61-53. The Knights then went on a 10-0 run over the next 5 ½ minutes to take a 63-61 lead on an and-one with four minutes to play.

                WNCC tied the game at 63-63 with a Chesta-Carty bucket with 2:21 to play. North Platte went back in front 65-63, and WNCC misfired on some free-throw attempts while North Platte hit their free throws down the stretch to claim the 69-66 win.

                WNCC shot just 43 percent from the field and made 7-of-25 3-pointers and were 9-of-17 from the charity stripe. North Platte shot 47 percent from the field and made just 3-of-13 from beyond the arc. The Knights were 12-of-23 from the free throw line.

                North Platte also had a 43-33 rebounding edge in the game.

                WNCC was led by Sipolina with 18 points, including four 3-pointers, while Chesta-Carty had 12 and Aviles 10 points.

WNCC                             18 24 16 8 – 66
North Platte                     13 19 18 19 – 69
WNCC
Zozefine Sipolina 18, Ella Chesta-Carty 12, Veralyn Aviles 10, Celina Donyo 8, Aniaya Burton-Hernandez 7, Charisma Johnson 6, Juseana-Rae Delatori 3, Brynn Sybrant 2.
NORTH PLATTE
Kyenna Jackson 16, Ligia Thortvedt 16, Aliyah Herron 12, Dezirae Gonzales 10, Alexa Stevens 7, Jasmine Gilbert 5, Joie Rodriguez 3.