The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team got key defensive stops and clutch free throw shooting by Vinnie Shahid down the stretch to upend No. 11 Lamar Community College 71-69 in overtime Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace in a Region IX South sub-region contest.
The win was the Cougars 11th of the season and moves WNCC to 4-3 in South play.
WNCC head coach Cory Fehringer said this was a big win for his team.
"This is a win in the South region," Fehringer said. "Obviously for kids it can give them a little more confidence and momentum. Ultimately we are focused on winning games in the South. I just felt really confident in our guys that they were going to show up today and they were going to be very competitive."
And competitive they were especially in crunch time. Fehringer knew this was going to be a battle and it was.
"We told them that championship defense was going to be the number one key to this," he said. "To be able to win the game on a stop instead of a score, I think that shows a lot about our guys and what they did here today."
WNCC had plenty of heroes in the game in both halves. WNCC had three players score in double figures, but the bit stat was rebounding, where they out-rebounded the No. 11 team in the nation 41-40.
RJ Palmer led all scorers with 21 points with nine rebounds. Marlon Sierra chipped in 14 with six boards, and Djodje Dimitrijevic added 11.
What WNCC did Saturday, though, was never get down, especially when they trailed 9-2 and later 28-19 in the in the first half. Fehringer said that is what he likes about this team, they are battlers.
"This group of young men won't cheat on effort," Fehringer said. "Night in and night out, they won't cheat you on effort and if you could say that you would win just on effort, we would go undefeated. But you do have to play basketball on both ends of the floor in scoring baskets and getting stops, and we are getting better at that."
WNCC trailed at one time in the first half by nine, 26-17 and later at 32-27. It was then the Cougars went on a 12-0 run that started with an old-fashioned 3-point play by Palmer and finished with a driving bucket by Harris. WNCC led 39-33 at halftime.
WNCC kept playing strong in the second half, leading by 10 early, 47-37 and then was up 65-60 with 6:15 to play. Lamar tied the game at 65 on an old-fashioned 3-point by Wayne Stewart. Both teams scored one more bucket sending the game into an extra period.
Lamar scored first in the extra frame on a bucket by Richard Caldwell. Dimitrijevic came back to tie the game with a bucket with 2:18 to play. WNCC took the lead on two Shahid free throws with 34.3 seconds. That was when the defense came up big, thwarting three inside chances by Lamar and then a 3-point shot at the buzzer to win the game.
WNCC, 11-7, will be back in action Tuesday when they host Northwest Kansas Technical College at 6 p.m.
Fehringer said his team will celebrate the win for a while and then move on to the next game on Sunday.
"I just tell them at midnight we move on to the next day," he said. "The calendar says it is the next day and mentally and physically you have to move on and prepare for the next game."
Lamar (17-2) 33 34 2 – 69
WNCC (11-7) 39 28 4 – 71
LAMAR
Ryley Stewart 6, Michael Skinner 13, Justin Holliday 11, Richard Caldwell 10, Wayne Stewart 11, Andre Hardy 2, Jerome LeNeir 9, Isaiah Martin 7.
WNCC
Trent Harris 5, RJ Palmer 21, Vinnie Shahid 7, Jalan Brown 4, Marlon Sierra 14, Djodje Dimitrijevic 11, Jeremy Ruffin 9.