CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Anytime the Western Nebraska Community College and Laramie County Community College men's basketball teams play, you can always expect a dogfight and Wednesday was no different.
The Cougar men held a 52-37 halftime lead, but the Golden Eagles outscored the Cougars 73-53 in the second half and overtime to earn the 110-105 win. It was the third overtime game between the two squads in the last four years with LCCC winning all three. The last time was last year which was played on November 8 when LCCC won 85-79 in overtime at Cougar Palace.
This year, the two teams played on November 8 again and the Golden Eagles put together a strong second half to get the win.
WNCC, 0-2, will look to get on the winning side when they head to Goodland, Kansas, for the NT Classic when they face Colby Community College on Friday and Northwest Kansas Technical College on Saturday.
Wednesday's contest saw LCCC hold a 14-12 lead in the first half when WNCC went on a 12-3 scoring run that was aided by back-to-back treys by Maurice Walker for a 24-17 lead. LCCC sliced the Cougar lead to three, 36-33, but the Cougars closed out the first half on a 16-4 run to lead 52-37.
The second half saw WNCC stay in front by 12 at 58-46 on a Nazir Griffin bucket. That was when LCCC cut the deficit to two, 60-58. The Cougars came right back to go up 67-59 on two Stephen Ovia free throws. LCCC tied the contest with 7:46 to play at 69-69 and took their first lead on a 3-pointer at 72-71 since early in the first half.
WNCC came back to re-take the lead at 86-84 and led 91-89 with under 30 seconds to play on a JJ Harris trey. LCCC hit two free throws with 12.6 seconds to tie the game. WNCC had a chance to win the game in regulation, but a shot missed and LCCC called a time out with 1.1 second left and their desperation shot wasn't good.
The overtime period saw LCCC score the first four points to lead 95-91. WNCC sliced the deficit to a single point on several occasions. LCCC led 106-101 when Willie Wilson hit two buckets to bring the score to 106-105. LCCC hit four late free throws for the final margin.
The Cougars put five players in double figures while LCCC had six players in double figures. WNCC shot 54 percent from the field to 49 percent for LCCC. The Cougars buried 11 treys to the Golden Eagles seven.
WNCC out-rebounded LCCC 48-36 with Ovia grabbing nine boards followed by Daniel Bula with eight and Anthony Simo with seven.
The difference in the game was at the free throw line. WNCC was whistled for 33 fouls to 17 for LCCC. LCCC sank 33 of 48 free throws while WNCC made 18 of 24.
WNCC was led by Harris with 24 points including six 3-pointers. Ovia also had 19 while Wilson had 18. Bula and Elijah Burney each had 11.
LCCC was led by Brandon Tchouya with 26 points while Jordan Reed had 19 by making 11 of 13 from the charity stripe.
WNCC (0-2) 52 39 14 – 105
LCCC (3-1) 37 54 19 – 110
WNCC
Stephen Ovia 19, Travis Easterly, Jr. 2, Daniel Bula 11, Maurice Walker 6, JJ Harris 24, Elijah Burney 11, Anthony Simo 6, Nazir Griffin 4, Willie Wilson 18, Kaden Nation 4.
LCCC
Pedro Ellery 12, Brandon Tchouya 26, Abdullah Mahumed 13, Ejay Scroggins 4, Jordan Reed 19, Phoenix Bullock 4, Justin Daniels 18, Davion Butler 11, Kamrohn Roundtree 3.