The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team earned a trip to the final eight of the Region IX tournament after topping Northeastern Junior College 93-74 Saturday evening at Cougar Palace in the first round of the regional tournament.
The Cougars, who had the No. 2 seed from the South, will now travel to Gillette, Wyoming, for the 3-day tournament. The Cougars will face Casper College at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The rest of the pairings for the quarterfinals pit Central Wyoming against Lamar at 1 p.m., Laramie County against Sheridan at 3 p.m., and Gillette taking on Otero at 7 p.m.
WNCC coach Cory Fehringer said moving on in the regional tournament is huge for this Cougar team, who hasn't played for a regional title since 2003.
"This win means we just need back to work," the first-year Cougar coach said. "We need to continue to sharpen up, try to correct any errors that we may have, and just go out there and play the lowest margin of error that we can play with in the next round."
Fehringer was more impressed with how this team won as a team, finishing with 26 assists and putting five players in double figures.
"I thought our identity throughout the year surfaced again tonight," he said. "We shared the ball and were unselfish, we sacrificed and played hard together, and ultimately just played possession to possession basketball."
WNCC was led by Vinnie Shahid with 21 points, including four 3-pointers and four assists. WNCC also got 16 points from Jeremy Ruffin. Ruffin also pulled down eight rebounds and was a perfect 10 of 10 from the charity stripe.
Trent Harris and RJ Palmer each popped in 14 points while Marlon Sierra added 12. Harris finished with 3-pointers, while Sierra had four blocked shots.
What Fehringer was pleased with was the balanced scoring.
"We had 26 assists. You ask the guys to penetrate the paint and pass the ball when they are covered and score it when they are open. I think our guys scored 93 points while not playing very effectively. We didn't shoot great percentages, which means defensively we allowed ourselves to score some great baskets."
A big key in the game was a late first half run that turned a 26-25 game into a 42-31 halftime lead. Fehringer said that run helped them get momentum on their side.
"You have to have momentum runs and you have to kill their momentum runs," Fehringer said. "I thought their runs were short-lived and I thought we extended our runs a little longer."
Once the Cougars got that momentum, they kept it, limiting NJC to short runs in the second half. What changed the complexion of the game was midway in the second half. WNCC held a 60-48 lead and went on a 10-0 run to lead 70-49.
Late in the second quarter, NJC made a run in cutting a 77-58 deficit to 12 points at 77-65 with four minutes to go. It was what the Cougars did after that put the icing on the cake, going on an 11-0 run behind a trey from Shahid, a bucket by Ruffin, and 6-of-6 free throws.
WNCC shot 43 percent for the game and was 8 of 26 from beyond the arc. NJC was 38 percent from the field and just 4 of 20 from the 3-point arc. Free throw shooting was the difference with the Cougars converting on 31 of 34 charity tosses. NJC was just as deadly from the line, going 22 of 23.
Other first round games Saturday night in the men's tournament saw in the South Sub-region saw No. 1 Laramie County top No. 8 McCook 103-85, No. 4 Otero beat No. 5 North Platte 70-68, and No. 3 Lamar took care of No. 6 Trinidad State 74-65.
First round action in the North saw No. 2 Central Wyoming top No. 7 Miles 85-76, No. 3 Casper beat No. 6 Western Wyoming 84-49, and No. 1 Gillette topping No 8 Little Big Horn 117-91.
NJC 31 43 – 74
WNCC (21-10) 42 51 – 93
NJC
Kei'Shon Parker 8, Garrett Baggett 16, Jazz Parker 5, Jalonni McCovery 9, Tyne Robinson 2, Avel Mpoyo 8, Dan Villeho 2, Jaen Guidry 7, Marsalis Johnson 9, Ron Hall 4.
WNCC
Austin Payne 6, Trent Harris 14, RJ Palmer 16, Vinnie Shahid 21, Ricards Pinne 2, Marlon Sierra 12, Djodje Dimitrijevic 8, Jeremy Ruffin 16.