The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team put Friday night's loss to Otero Junior College and came out and played tough from start to finish to capture a 77-64 South Sub-region win over Trinidad State College Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.

                Chancelor Johnson, who buried four second-half 3-pointers, said it was a good win for the team.

                "We played really well," he said. "We always start off really well and the second half we don't. We locked in in the second half this time."

                The Cougars put three in double figures in the win. Them Koang led the way with 21 points followed by Rodney Sawyer with 16 and Johnson with 12.

                Johnson said the way they played Saturday was definitely an upbeat from Friday's game with Otero.

                "Yesterday (Friday) was a tough game, but we bounced back good today," he said.

                A big reason for the win was the Cougars never let Trinidad State get any big runs and WNCC used a 10-0 run in the second half behind 3-pointers by Johnson and Agwa Nysesh to retake the lead at 56-52 and then never relinquished the lead again.

                "It is very important to keep the lead because nobody wants a close game," Johnson said. "We try to keep the lead as much as possible in each half and take it possession to possession and maintain to play good defense."

                WNCC led 9-5 to start the game on a Carl Thorpe bucket only to watch Trinidad come back to grab a 20-17 lead. The lead see-sawed back and forth the rest of the half as the Cougars clung to a 37-36 halftime lead.

                In the game, there were 11 lead changes and five ties and most of those were in the first half.

                The second half saw Trinidad grab a 7-point lead at 48-41 and led 52-46. That was when the Cougars had that 10-0 run that saw them grab the 56-52 lead.

                Trinidad did cut the lead two points, but Johnson had the hot hand as he buried three straight 3-pointers to help the Cougars lead 67-58 with 6:39 to play.

                The Cougars continued playing tough defense and pushed the lead to 75-62 late on six straight points from Rodney Sawyer and held on for the 77-64 win.

                WNCC shot 49 percent from the field but were only 33 percent (6-of-18) from beyond the arc. Trinidad also made six treys but only shot 38 percent from the field.

                The Cougars won the rebound battle 39-31.

                WNCC will be back in action next weekend when they travel to face McCook Community College on Friday and then North Platte Community College on Saturday.

                Both these games are also South Sub-region games coming up and after Saturday's win, the Cougars are 2-3 in the sub-region and they are fighting to host a first-round Region IX tournament game. Johnson knows these games are important. Also, the winner of the South hosts the Region IX tournament this year.

                "These games are very important because these games determine if we play here during the tournament," Johnson said. "We are just trying to lock in and win some games."

                And now, the Cougars hit the road for several weeks and it doesn't get easy. Johnson said they must play even better.

                "On the road we have to play with more intensity," he said. "We are not in front of our home crowd so we have to cheer each other one and keep each other up. We have to stay together as a team. That is the whole thing to winning, playing as a team."

Trinidad                36 28 – 64

WNCC                   37 40 77

TRINIDAD

Jailen Bedford 12, Dylan West 19, Blake Cesar 5, Javeon Tolliver 12, Tasontai Brown 2, Robel Destra 2, Cooper Peterson 5, Gary Johns 4, Gregory Beatty 1, Richard Swanson 2.

WNCC

Carter Brown 3, Rodney Sawyer 16, Biko Johnson 6, Carl Thorpe 6, Agwa Nywesh 9, Chancelor Johnson 12, Turumbil Zaki 4, Them Koang 21.