LAMAR, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team were outscored 8-0 in the final 85 seconds of their Region IX South Sub-region contest with Lamar Community College Tuesday on the road as the Lopes registered the 78-69 win.

                The loss drops the Cougars to 11-9 on the season and 2-2 in conference play. Lamar goes to 6-12 on the season and are also 2-2 in the conference along with Northeastern Junior College. NJC defeated North Platte on Tuesday 88-81.

                WNCC will look to get back on the winning track on Thursday when they host North Platte at Cougar Palace in a key sub-region contest. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.

                WNCC and Lamar were playing back and forth with each other all game. WNCC held an early 26-23 lead on a Biko Johnson bucket. That changed as Lamar went on a 10-0 run to lead 33-26 and the Lopes led 37-32 at halftime.

                The second half saw WNCC tied the game at 40-40 on a Dimitrije Nikolic bucket and take the lead at 42-40. Lamar then went on a 11-0 run to push the lead to 51-42. WNCC came storming back as they retook the lead at 52-51 on two Biko Johnson free throws with 12:29 to play.

                WNCC led 59-56 on two Carl Thorpe charity tosses. Lamar went on another run, this time a 7-0 run to lead 63-59. WNCC cut the deficit to a single point at 65-64 on a Daniel Bula 3-pointer. WNCC was in striking distance with 1:25 to play as Thorpe made 5-of-6 free throws to make it 70-69. That was all the scoring WNCC would get as Lamar scored the final eight points for the win.

                WNCC was led by Thorpe with 23 points, including going 10-of-12 from the free throw line. Biko Johnson also had 11 points while Bula had 10 points and CJ Johnson tallied eight.

WNCC (11-9)     32 37 – 69

Lamar (6-14)      37-41 – 78

WNCC

Dimitrije Nikolic 5, Carl Thorpe 23, Daniel Bula 10, Zach O'Callaghan 8, CJ Johnson 8, Biko Johnson 11, Stephen Ovia 2, Maurice Walker 2.