CASPER, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team received 24 points from Chase Thompson, but it wasn't enough as the Casper College Thunderbirds shot 57 percent from the field in registering an 100-91 win Wednesday evening in Casper, Wyoming.

                The first half was a battle as WNCC led 16-12 after a Them Koang bucket. Casper scored eight straight to grab a 20-16 lead and led 34-22 late in the first half. WNCC battled back, going on a 12-0 run to tie the game at 34 which included a 3-pointer by Agwa Nywesh.

                WNCC re-grabbed the lead at 37-36 on a trey by Thompson. Casper hit back-to-back treys and led 51-43 at halftime.

                The second half was close as well. Casper ran out to a 73-65 lead only to watch the Cougars slice the lead to 75-70 on a Taylor Johnson 3-pointer. Casper reloaded and went up by 10 at 84-74. That was when WNCC went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 84-81.

                Casper went back up by 12 at 93-81. The Cougars kept fighting back but only could get the led cut to seven points, 98-91 with 30 seconds to play.

                The shooting was the difference in the contest. Casper was 57 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc. WNCC was 44 percent from the field and 36 from the 3-point line. WNCC buried 13 treys compared to 14 for Casper. Nywesh had five 3-pointers in the game while Thompson had three, and Tyler Mack and Johnson had two treys.

                Casper out-rebounded WNCC 45-38. Nywesh led the way on the glass with 11 boards.

                WNCC had four players hit the double-figure mark in scoring. Thompson had 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field. Nywesh pitched in 21 points while Koang tallied 17 and Johnson had 11.

                Casper was led by Traizon Byrd with 21 points followed by Peter Turay with 20.

                WNCC, 2-3, will have the weekend off before having three games next weekend. WNCC travels to Eastern Wyoming College on Tuesday followed by a 3-day classic on Feb. 11-13. WNCC will only play Friday and Saturday as they host Northwest College on Friday and Central Community College-Columbus Saturday afternoon. Thursday's game of the classic will feature Northwest facing Central-Columbus.

WNCC                   43 48 – 91

Casper                  51 49 – 100

WNCC

Chase Thompson 24, Taylor Johnson 11, Agwa Nywesh 21, Issad Solano 6, Them Koang 17, Carter Brown 3, Jasiya DeOllos 1, Tyler Mack 8.

CASPER

Trey Boston 19, Micah Garrett 8, Dion Ford 8, Dathan Satchell 18, Peter Turay 20, Traizon Byrd 21, Moses Gordon 2, Ousmane Dia 2, Nigel Marshal 2.