The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team recorded 11 dunks and put five players in double figures to capture a Region IX South Division win over Eastern Wyoming College Thursday evening at Cougar Palace.

                Tyrell Williams paced the Cougars with a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds. Williams also had three of the team's 11 dunks.

                The win pushes the Cougars to 7-9 in South Division play and they are still in the running to move up in the South Division depending on what Northeastern Junior College, McCook, and Trinidad do over the weekend.

                The Cougar moved to 23-3 on the season and 11-1 in South play with the victory that saw Cougars open up a 57-51 lead after three quarters in holding the Lancers to just three fourth-quarter points while scoring 19 themselves.

                Derrick Bowers, who was one of four sophomores honored before the game, said the team played well.

                "I thought we played really well today," the sophomore from Phoenix, Arizona, said. "We practiced really hard this week defensively and that just carried over to the game tonight."

                The men's contest was a back and forth affair for the first 15 minutes as EWC hled a 31-29 lead and later the game was tied at 33. After that, WNCC went on a 16-0 run that pushed the Cougars to a 49-33 halftime lead.

                Bowers said it was that late first-half push that helped spark the Cougars.

                "Honestly, what helped us to start to pull away is us clamping down on defense," he said. "We just went to what we prepped in practice this week and that defense helped us get come fast-break points and some easy threes. So that allowed us to get up by 10 points at the half."

                WNCC kept excelling on offense. In fact, a big factor in the game was the team's inside game where they finished with 11 dunks, three from Williams and two each from Daylon Harris and Phil Fayne.

                Derrick Bowers had two electrifying dunks in the first three minutes of the second half and The Cougars kept the electricity high as Harris slammed home two points for a 68-48 lead. WNCC led by as much as 80-56 before EWC started to get hot, but it was a little too late.

                Bowers said getting those dunks definitely helps the team perform better.

                "The dunks did factor into it tonight," he said. "That momentum allowed everyone play to their full potential and allowed us to play with a lot of confidence and allow us to pull away and not allow our opponents to get back into it tonight."

                WNCC shot 64 percent from the field while EWC was 39 percent. WNCC connected on just four 3-pointers, while the Lancers had 15, seven from Chris Oseitytu, who led all scorers with 28 points.

                WNCC also out-rebounded the Lancers 50-30. Williams had 11 and Fayne had nine.

                The Cougars has five players in double figures. Fayne and Williams each had 18 followed by Michael Sparks with 17, Bowers with 14, and Chase Mason with 12.

                The Cougar men will return to action Saturday when they host Northern Colorado All-stars at 1 p.m. at Cougar Palace. Then they will wrap up the regular season when they visit Casper College Feb. 23.

Men's Game

EWC (7-22)                          35 49 – 84

WNCC (17-11)                    49 50 – 99

EWC

Dashawn Benson 13, Chris Oseitytu 28m Grant Olson 11, Cedric Collinge 11, Hunter Johnson 7, Jace Johnson 1, Peter Skoknic 7, Dustin Gatzki 6.

WNCC

Daylon Harris 4, Mason Smith 9, RJ Palmer 3, Michael Sparks 17, Austin Payne 2, Michael Connor 2, Derrick Bowers 14, Chase Mason 12, Phil Fayne 18, Tyrell Williams 18.