The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team dug themselves a first-half deficit before a furious comeback just fell short as the Northwest Trappers claimed the 80-78 win in the first day of the WNCC Classic.

               WNCC will look to bounce back on Saturday as they face Jump Start Academy at 4 p.m. to wrap up the WNCC Classic. Jump Start fell to Otero College on Friday in the second game of the day 81-52. Otero will battle Northwest at noon on Saturday.

               WNCC head coach Billy Engel said his team has to stop digging themselves big holes where they have to fight to come back in the second half.

               "It was what we have been doing this year is we would dig ourselves a hole and fight back by having a good second half to give ourselves a chance," Engel said. "It is extremely frustrating that we want to play hard, get after it, and have energy to be competitive to extend and grow a lead from what we build in the first half and we haven't been able to figure that out yet."

               WNCC had five in double figures as Stephen Ovia had 15 points followed by Rodney Sawyer with 14, Biko Johnson with 12, and CJ Johnson and Daniel Bula with 11 points each.

               The big difference in the game was rebounding where the Trappers grabbed that edge 39-20. Northwest's Yannice Nlend had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

               WNCC started off well as they led 4-0 and led 10-9 on an Ovia dunk. That dunk was the last time the Cougars would lead. WNCC did, however, earn a tie at 11-11. After that, the Trappers went on a 12-0 run to go up 23-11.

               WNCC came back to cut the deficit to six, 30-24, but the Trappers went up 41-26 and led by nine at halftime 44-35.

               The second half saw Northwest lead 69-57 midway through the half. The second part of the second half saw the Cougars wake up as they cut the lead to 69-61 on a Bula bucket. Northwest went back up by 12 at 75-63 on an offensive rebound from Juan Pablo Carmargo Tellez with five minutes to play. 

               WNCC kept fighting and got the deficit down to two points on back-to-back buckets by CJ Johnson and two free throws by Sawyer to make it 77-75 with 1:16 to play.

               Northwest's Davion McAdam hit two free throws with 11.7 seconds to play to make it 79-75, but CJ Johnson nailed a 3-pointer with 3.7 seconds to make it a one-point game. McAdam made one of two free throws with 2.5 seconds to play, but Northwest got the offensive rebound and that sealed the win.

Northwest          44 36 – 80
WNCC                   35 43 – 78
NORTHWEST
Davion McAdam 25, Juan Pablo Camargo Tellez 15, Yannice Nlend 13 Christian Adun 8, Will Hemme 8, David Ayala 5, Kolter Merritt 4, Andre Loigu 2.
WNCC
Stephen Ovia 15, Rodney Sawyer 14, Biko Johnson 12, CJ Johnson 11, Daniel Bula 11, Dimitrije Nikolic 6, Maurice Walker 5, Carl Thorpe 4.