The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team put five players in double figures and registered a 100-77 Region IX South Sub-region win over McCook Community College Friday evening.
The win was the Cougars' 17th of the season, but more importantly keeps them tied for second in the South Sub-region at 8-4 with Lamar, who downed Northeastern Junior College Friday night. Laramie County Community College still hold the top spot after downing Trinidad State 104-97 in overtime.
The Cougars will look to stay among the leaders when they take on North Platte Community College Saturday at 4 p.m. It is the Cougar men's final home game of the season in sophomore recognition day.
Trent Harris, who was celebrating his birthday on Frida and finished with 1o points, said the team played well from the start.
"We played really well," Harris said. "We came out strong just like some of our other games. We just got the early lead and we kept pushing it."
Friday's win was a team effort with five in double figures. Vinnie Shahid led the pace with 23 points, while burying four 3-pointers.
Michael Connor and Marlon Sierra each had 15 points. Connor pitched in three 3-pointers while Sierra had eight of the first 10 points. Harris and Jeremy Ruffin followed with 10 points each. Ruffin also tallied a double-double, pulling down 10 rebounds.
Harris said havin+g several scorers really helps the team.
"We need that kind of scoring from everyone every night," Harris said. "When only a few guys step up, we have showed that we struggle, but when we get everybody going we tend to roll with."
A big reason for the win was the runs that the Cougars had. McCook led just once after scoring the opening bucket. After that, it was all WNCC as Sierra scored eight of the Cougars' first 10 points. WNCC would go on to lead 17-4 and pushed the lead to 30-14 on a steal and dunk by Jalan Brown. WNCC led 49-34 at halftime.
WNCC came out of the locker room by scoring the first 13 points for a 62-36 lead. WNCC moved the lead to 69-42 before McCook went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 20, 69-49. But that was as close as they got with the Cougars posting the 100-77 win.
The difference in the game was shooting. WNCC shot 58 percent from the field and buried nine 3-pointers. McCook shot 41 percent from the field and hit just six 3-pointers.
WNCC also controlled the class, out-rebounding McCook 43-31. WNCC also had 16 steals, led by Connor with three.
McCook 34 43 – 77
WNCC (17-9) 49 51 – 100
MCCOOK
Draylan Perkins 9, Torrey Mayo 6, Lewis Diankulu 14, Brody Sharkey 10, D'Von Moore 13, Shevelle Bailey 2, Chinedu Okonkwo 17.
WNCC
Austin Payne 5, Trent Harris 10, RJ Palmer 2, Vinnie Shahid 23, Ricards Pinne 3, Michael Connor, Jr., 15, Deshawn Montaque 2, Jalan Brown 6, Marlon Sierra 15, Milos Popovic 2, Djodje Dimitrijevic 7, Jeremy Ruffin 10.