LAMAR, Colo. – Chancelor Johnson and Them Koang each had 19 points and the Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team advanced to the quarterfinals of the Region IX tournament with a 79-68 win over Lamar Community College Saturday afternoon at Lamar, Colorado.

                The win moves the Cougars into next week's 8-team Region IX tournament in LaJunta, Colorado. The Cougars will play North No. 1 seed Western Wyoming Community College Thursday at 3 p.m. The winner of the Region IX tournament, with the finals slated for Saturday, will qualify for the NJCAA national tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas, March 14-19.

                WNCC head coach Billy Engel was pleased with the way his team played.

                "I'm extremely proud of the guys for digging in, not only when we were playing well but when Lamar was going on their runs," Engel said. "It was great to see our guys come out firing offensively to start the game and to end the game, but we also played really well defensively on both of those runs as well. That's what we need to see to win in the playoffs."

                In other scores in the first round of the regional tournament, McCook Community College defeated North Platte Community College 91-84; Eastern Wyoming College topped Northwest College 99-85; and Casper defeated Central Wyoming 91-75.

                Engel said that the team's goal of a regional title is still alive.

                "It's a great feeling to get a playoff win and head to the single site in La Junta," he said. "This was the first step in us accomplishing the goals we had set for ourselves at the beginning of the year."

                The Cougars opened the game on a 10-0 run and led 18-3. The Cougars kept the offensive going as they pushed the lead to 25-10 on a Agwa Nywesh bucket.

                Lamar came storming back as they sliced the lead to 27-23 only to watch the Cougars score four straight on buckets by Nywesh and Rodney Sawyer for a 31-23 lead. WNCC led 36-32 at halftime.

                The second half saw Lamar take it's first lead of the game after opening the half with a 9-2 run to lead 41-38. From there it was back and forth as Sawyer hit a 3-pointer to tied the game. Lamar came right back with a 6-0 run to lead 47-41.

                WNCC answered with a 7-0 run behind back-to-back treys from Sawyer and Johnson for a 48-47 lead. The lead see-sawed between the two teams. Lamar held a 63-60 lead with about five minutes to play. That was when WNCC ignited on offense with a 14-0 run that saw Johnson and Nywesh hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Koang put down a dunk for a 74-63 lead with about 2:20 to play.

                WNCC never looked back as they hit clutch free throws for the win.

                Engel said he his team hung tough throughout the many lead changes in the second half and came out on top.

                "I'm just extremely proud of our kids," Engel said. "This is some of the most resilient I've seen our kids play all year. We played like a family today and I couldn't be more proud."

                WNCC had four in double figures with Johnson and Koang finishing with 19 points while Nywesh had 15 and Sawyer had 14.

WNCC                   36 43 – 79

Lamar                    32 36 – 68

WNCC

Carl Thorpe 2, Chancelor Johnson 19, Them Koang 19, Agwa Nywesh 15, Biko Johnson 5, Carter Brown 5, Rodney Sawyer 14.

LAMAR

Khalil Haywood 11, Thurbil Bile 6, Kris Cook 21, Kevon Wiggins 16, Kipplyn Richvine 5, Tim Montgomery 9.