It was a tale of two halves for the Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team in their South Sub-region contest with Northeastern Junior College on Saturday at Cougar Palace.

                The Cougar men played one of their best first halves defensively and then played one of their worst second halves to fall to NJC 85-73 on sophomore recognition.

                Despite the loss, the Cougars will host a first-round playoff game next week, more than likely Friday evening. A win Saturday and the Cougars would have been the second seed entering the Region IX tournament. Now, with the loss which drops WNCC to 6-6 in conference play and 15-14 overall, the Cougars could fall to the third seed.

                The only game left in conference play is North Platte and NJC, which will be played Tuesday. If North Platte wins, the Cougars would get the second seed and play North Platte. A NJC win puts the Cougars at the third seed and a play-off game against either Lamar or Otero.

                WNCC head coach Billy Engel said the loss was hard to take after how well his team played in the first half.

                "Not only did we defend in the first half, but we rebounded," Engel said. "That was the big difference in the second half is defensively we had some moments, but we gave up a ton of offensive rebounds. That was the story of the second half and after that we turned it over a bunch. We gave them a lot of opportunities."

                The loss only hurts the team's pride as they enter the Region IX tournament on a 2-game slide. The good news though is the Cougars will have another home game as they will host a first-round game. Engel said his team controlled their own destiny to get the number two seed, but now they have to wait it out.

                "We have been in control of our own destiny for a while but now we haven't been able to capitalize on some early momentum and that is in the hands of other teams now," he said. "So, we have to see what McCook did with Trinidad and see what North Platte and NJC do on Tuesday. There are still a couple things that could happen for us to still be the two seed, but for sure we will host on Friday."

                The loss stings because the men played so well in the first half as they shot 37 percent from the field and 42 percent from beyond the arc (5-of-12), while holding NJC to just 18 percent from behind the arc (2-of-11) and 40 percent from the field.

                The second half shooting and rebounding was the difference. NJC shot 55 percent from the field while WNCC was just 42 percent, which was still good enough to win. The difference was rebounds as NJC out-rebounded the Cougars 41-39 for the game. NJC also shot 15 more free throws the WNCC. NJC was 17-of-25 from the charity stripe while WNCC was just 9-of-10.

                The first half saw NJC hit the opening bucket on a 3-pointer. The Cougars came back with an 8-0 run that included a CJ Johnson 3-pointer for an 8-3 lead. WNCC wouldn't trail the rest of the first half despite NJC slicing the lead to two points on a couple occasions.

                The last time was at 16-14 and that was when WNCC went on a 17-4 run that saw back-to-back 3-pointers from Biko Johnson and Daniel Bula for a 22-14 lead and then two more treys from Bula and Dimitrije Nikolic for a 32-18 lead. WNCC led 38-28 at halftime.

                The second half NJC open the period on a 17-7 run that saw the Plainsmen tie the game at 45-45 with 12:30 left to play. NJC took their first lead at 48-47, which was short lived as Carl Thorpe and an old-fashioned 3-point play to put WNCC back in front.

                WNCC led 59-56 on a Bula bucket, but things changed in a heartbeat as the Plainsmen went on a 12-2 run to take a 68-61 lead. WNCC sliced the deficit to seven points at 74-67, but couldn't get any closer as NJC earned the win.

                WNCC had three players in double figures. Biko Johnson led the way with 19 points followed by Bula with 17 and Thorpe with 15.

                WNCC, 15-14, will wait until Tuesday night to see who they play in the first round of the regional tournament that will take place next weekend. Stay tuned to the WNCC athletic website www.wnccathletics.com and the WNCC Cougar Facebook page for dates and times of the home first-round playoff game.

NJC        28  57 – 85
WNCC   38 35 – 73
NJC
Shaun Riley 6, Kobe Greene 6, Ryan Payne 8, Daxton Dayley 7, Donta Dawson 17, Elijah Thomas 12, Keynion Clark 18, Malachi Greenwich 11.
WNCC
CJ Johnson 6, Dimitrije Nikolic 5, Biko Johnson 19, Carl Thorpe 15, Stephen Ovia 2, Daniel Bula 17, Maurice Walker 5, Zach O'Callaghan 4.