LAJUNTA, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College and Otero College men's basketball team had a free throw shooting contest Sunday afternoon where the two teams combined for 93 free throw attempts and 61 fouls.
In the end, it was the No. 25 Otero Rattlers that earned the 108-89 win. The win moves the Rattlers to 8-0 and one game away from clinching the No. 1 seed in the South sub-region and the host of the Region IX tournament. WNCC moves to 14-11 overall and 3-6 in the South sub-region. The Cougars are still in the hunt to host a first-round Region IX tournament playoff game, but they will have to win in their next games.
WNCC next game will be Tuesday when they travel to Northeastern Junior College and then a trip to Lamar Community College on Thursday. NJC is 4-6 in the South Sub-region while Lamar is 4-5. WNCC will wrap up the regular season with a home game on Feb. 22 against North Platte Community College. North Platte is 3-5 in the conference standings.
Sunday's contest was one where the Rattlers opened up a 17-6 lead behind five 3-pointers. Otero nailed 15 threes for the game.
WNCC battled back as they sliced the lead to 29-22 on a Agwa Nywesh 3-pointer and trailed by nine, 37-28 on a Turumbil Zaki bucket. Otero, however, opened the game up and led 53-38 at halftime.
The second half saw an even game. Otero outscored WNCC 57-53, but the Cougars battled back cutting the deficit to single digits at 79-70 on a Rodney Sawyer free throw. WNCC cut the lead even further at 81-74 on a Them Koang bucket.
Otero came back to go up 88-74 and really never looked back.
WNCC shot 44 percent from the field and were 6-of-15 from the 3-point arc. Otero shot 48 percent from the field and were 15-of-29 from the 3-point arc.
Free throw shooting was the key as both teams were in the double bonus with 11 minutes to play in the second half. Otero was 39-of-45 from the charity stripe while WNCC was 37-of-48.
WNCC won the rebound battle 38-25. Koang had 11 boards in the game.
WNCC had three players in double figures. Koang led the way with 26 points followed by Sawyer with 24 and Nywesh with 14. Sawyer was 14-of-15 from the free throw line, while Koang was 8-of-14.
WNCC (14-11) 36 53 – 89
Otero (22-3) 51 57 – 108
WNCC
Carter Brown 9, Biko Johnson 1, Agwa Nywesh 14, Turumbil Zaki 3, Them Koang 26, Rodney Sawyer 24, Jasiya DeOllos 6, Carl Thorpe 3, Chancelor Johnson 3.
OTERO
Dwayne Chester 12, Hunter Jack Madden 23, Rodney Mason 2, Aman Measho 2, Tommy Kamarad 15, Kenard Richardson 5, Ezra Burnett 10, Kyrie Thomas 11, Ikechi Chantilou 3, Shawn Fudge 2, Luis Miera 2, Ty Diggins 3, AC Curry 14, Jamal Adams 1, Destin Harris 3.