The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team connected on 20 3-pointers in blitzing past Williston State College 106-67 Monday evening at Cougar Palace.

                The Cougars, in picking up their seventh win of the season, put six players in double figures. Trent Harris and Vinnie Shahid paced the Cougars with a combined 40 points and 10 3-pointers.

                Harris, a Scottsbluff graduated, buried five treys to finish with a game-high 21 points. Shahid finished with 19 points and five treys.

                Also hitting for double figures were Jervay Green with 17 points, Djodje Dimitrijevic with 14 points and four treys, Bryce Sanchious with 12 points, and Marlon Sierra with 10 points.

                Dimitrijevic said the offense had a good night.

                "That, having six players in double figures, is a pretty big thing because not a lot of teams have a lot of players that can score like we do," he said. "First of all we need to have chemistry and trusting our players."

                The 20 3-pointers on a night is a season high. The Cougars have nailed double-figure treys in nine of the 11 games they played. The previous high was 18 3-pointers in the season-opener against Little Big Horn.

                "It was a pretty good night for us shooting," Dimitrijevic said. "We all hit 3-pointers and that is what we have to do."

                But early on, the Cougars struggled offensively, trailing 13-10 at one point until a 12-0 run that was highlighted by 3-pointers by Sierra and Sanchious and a monstrous dunk by Sanchious for a 22-13 lead. WNCC kept excelling leading 38-20 after another Sierrra trey to lead 41-27 at intermission.

                "We played really well with this being our third game in four days," Dimitrijevic said. "We started pretty slow with it being 8-7 for them after seven minutes of game. After that we picked it up on defense and picked up the ball better and we just ran."

                WNCC never looked back in the second half as Cougars shot 65 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes and converted 13-of-19 3-pointers for 68 percent shooting

                A lot of the points, too, came because of a strong defense. That is something Dimitrijevic said is key for this team.

                The Cougars out-rebounded Williston 39-31. Sierra, Harris, and Marko Rajanovic paced the team with five boards each.

                WNCC also shared the ball well, dishing off 22 assists. Dimitrijevic led the team with seven assists while Shahid had five dishes.

                WNCC, 7-2, will be back in action Friday when they travel to Sterling, Colorado, to face Northeastern Junior College in the first South Sub-region contest of the season.

Williston (4-6)                    27 40 – 67

WNCC (7-2)                         41 65 – 106

WILLISTON
Chris Hankins 4, Charlie Imiger 14, Darrel Riley 2, O'Shane Taylor-Douglas 6, Michael Vandall 11, Sita Conteh 11, Mychael Paulo 17, Seth Haugland 2.

WNCC

Peter Cherry 1, Trent Harris 21, Bryce Sanchious 12, Vinnie Shahid 19, Marlon Sierra 10, Marko Rajanovic 7, Austin Hoffman 3, Jervay Green 17, Djodje Dimitrijevic 14, Martin Roub 2.