LAJUNTA, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team made a gallant run at a Region IX title, but fell short in falling to Trinidad State College 67-61 in the Region IX tournament in La Junta, Colorado, Friday evening.

                The Cougars end their season at 17-14. Trinidad advances to the championship game Saturday evening at 7 p.m. when they will face the host school Otero College. Otero was an 89-81 winner over Laramie County Community College.

                The Region IX champion earns an automatic berth to the NJCAA national tournament March 14-19 in Hutchinson, Kansas.

                For the Cougar men, they were in the driver's seat in the first half as they held a 41-36 lead. A big reason for the Cougars' halftime lead was their outside shooting where they buried eight 3-pointers. Trinidad had just four treys in the first half.

                The second half was back and forth for the first five minutes. WNCC last led 45-44 on a Carl Thorpe bucket. That was when the Trojans went on a 10-0 run to lad 54-45 with about six minutes to play. WNCC had just four points in the first 14 minutes of the second half.

                WNCC finally started to see some shots fall as Them Koang hit a bucket to stop the Trinidad run. WNCC got back to within six points, 58-52, on a Agwa Nywesh 3-pointer with about three minutes to play. The Cougars were still hanging in there as they got the deficit down to five points, 66-61, on a Biko Johnson 3-pointer, but it was a little too late.

                WNCC shot 38 percent from the field and 38 percent from beyond the arc (10-of-27) while Trinidad was 37 percent from the field and 24 percent from behind the arc (50-of-21).

                Trinidad won the rebound battle 48-40 with Koang leading on the boards with 12.

                WNCC had two in double figures. Nywesh finished with 17 with three 3-pointers while Johnson had 12 points. Chancelor Johnson and Thorpe each had nine points.

WNCC                   41 20 – 61

Trinidad                36 31 – 67

WNCC

Carter Brown 5, Dimitrije Nikolic 2, Biko Johnson 12, Carl Thorpe 9, Agwa Nywesh 17, Chancelor Johnson 9, Them Koang 7.

TRINIDAD

Jailen Bedford 10, Dejour Reaves 9, Dylan West 17, Blake Cesar 3, Olson Nicholson 6, Javeon Tolliver 12, Gary Johns 2, Robel Desta 7.