The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team used a big second half in registering their first win in 2023 with an 82-43 win over Lake Region State College Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.

                The Cougars connected on 15 3-pointers in the win as Daniel Bula had four treys to lead the team with 17 points while Maurice Walker had three triples to finish with 11 points. Also collecting 11 points along with 10 rebounds was Carl Thorpe.

                WNCC head coach Billy Engel said their team played well, especially in the second half as they outscored the Royals 52-32 for the win.

                "It took a little while for us to find our rhythm and it is the first game of close to a month of playing a game," Engel said. "It took us a little bit to find our rhythm and knock some rust off and get back to how we want to play. The second half we found a little bit better rhythm and made quite a few shots as well, so that helps. But, defensively, it was good to see some toughness and seriousness and competitiveness from our guys. The most important thing from us right now is taking care of the glass and we did a good job rebounding today. I am pretty happy with the guys."

                Engel said he will take this win because it won't get any easier next week when they head to Casper, Wyoming, to face Casper College and Western Wyoming Community College in key non-conference Region IX games.

                "It doesn't get any easier. We have Casper and Western Wyoming and they are two teams that are expected to be at the top of the North side of the conference," he said. "The competition will get tougher and tougher. We have to take this as a building block and a step forward and we have to keep getting better."

                This was a good game for the team to get back into the mold of playing after not playing a game since December 10.

                The first half was rusty as the Cougars buried just five treys out of 16 attempts and went to the free throw line just once in three tries. The second half was a different story as WNCC connected on 83 percent of their 3-point shots (10-of-12) and were 8-of-11 from the charity stripe.

                The first half was back and forth as the two teams were knotted at 9-9 until the Cougars went up 15-9 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Maurice Walker. Lake Region came back to cut it to 15-13, but the Cougars went up 25-13 on a trey by Daniel Bula with 6:38 to play in the half and went on to lead 30-21 at halftime.

                The second half saw WNCC push the lead to 43-24 on a 3-pointer by Biko Johnson and never looked back after that.

                A big help in the game was the Cougars' defense as they held Lake Region to just 39 percent shooting and just 2-of-11 from beyond the arc.

                WNCC also won the glass as they had 39 rebounds compared to just 20 for Lake Region.

Lake Region        21 32 – 53

WNCC                   30 52 – 82

LAKE REGION

Harrison Raynor 6, Noah Bonick 5, Mohand Ammad 5, Mayson Brown 6, Ja'vion Byers 14, Denver Lund 11, Gage Polestad 6.

WNCC
Tristin Thomas 6, CJ Johnson 5, Dimitrije Nikolic 7, Biko Johnson 9, Carl Thorpe 11, Stephen Ovia 7, Daniel Bula 17, Maurice Walker 11, Zach O'Callaghan 9.