The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team picked up the defense in the second half while earning its third straight win with a commanding 79-54 win over Northwest Kansas Technical College Tuesday evening at Cougar Palace.
The win was WNCC's 12th of the season and it was the defense in the second half that was the difference, forcing two back-court, 10-second calls. Vinnie Shahid, who finished with 22 points, said the defensive energy was key in the win.
"The second half I think we just came out and played harder on the defensive end then we did in the first half," the freshman from Minneapolis, Minnesota, said. "Those 10-second calls are huge because 10 seconds calls are really good for us. It is an extra possession for us on offense and most of all it is a turnover for the defense."
The reason for the second half outburst was because of the amount of energy the Cougars had on the court. WNCC outscored Northwest Kansas 47-29 in the second half.
"The energy that we had was key in the second half," Shahid said. "The energy from the bench, the energy from the crowd, and the energy from our guys on defense helped us. The second half we picked it up. We started pressuring full court more and we anticipated and getting in the passing lanes and that is pretty much the difference from the first and second half."
The first half was a rough half for both squads. Neither team played exceptionally well. With the score tied at 23-23 late, WNCC went on a 7-point run that included a 3-pointer by Shahid and a big bucket by Marlon Sierra to help WNCC to the 32-25 halftime lead.
WNCC pushed the lead to double digits in the second half at 42-32. WNCC kept putting the pressure on defensively, recording its first 10-second call with about eight minutes to play. WNCC got another 10-second call three minutes later.
After that, Shahid buried three free throws after being fouled while attempting a 3-pointer. The shot of the night, however, came about a minute later as the Northwest defense bottled up the Cougar offense and nearly got a shot-clock violation. Instead, Shahid took a pass with about a second left on the shot clock and took a shot from around 30 feet out near the baseline that went in as the shot clock went off.
While the defense played well in the second half, holding Northwest Kansas to 27 percent shooting in the half and 32 percent for the game, the offense really picked up in the final 20 minutes. WNCC shot 57 percent in the second half, including burying seven 3-pointers.
WNCC had three players in double figures. Shahid led all scorers with his 22 points, including three 3-pointers and 9 of 10 from the charity stripe. Shahid also had four assists and six steals.
Djodje Dimitrijevic finished with 15 points with four 3-pointers. Dimitrijevic finished with three assists. Jeremy Ruffin also tallied double digits, finishing with 12 points while pulling down nine rebounds.
WNCC, 12-7, will be back in action Saturday when they host Eastern Wyoming College at 7:30 p.m. The Cougars will then host Casper College on Monday during the inaugural Cougar athletic hall of fame induction contest where former Cougar basketball player Bobby Jackson and NFL Hall of Famer Dick "Night Train" Lane will be enshrined at halftime of the men's contest.
NW Kansas 25 29 – 54
WNCC (12-7) 32 47 – 79
NW KANSAS TECH
Eddie Reese 20, Ivan Simic 2, Tim Graham 13, William Lybeck 9, Toby Van Ry 9, Kambrion Dicerson 1.
WNCC
Austin Payne 3, Trent Harris 5, RJ Palmer 4, Vinnie Shahid 22, Michael Connor, Jr., 6, Deshawn Montaque 3, Jalan Brown 3, Marlon Sierra 6, Djodje Dimitrijevic 15, Jeremy Ruffin 12.