WNCC men fall to Dawson 76-63
GILLETTE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team allowed one big run to Dawson Community College in both halves as the Bucs earned the 76-63 win Friday in the second day of the Border Wars Classic in Gillette, Wyoming.
WNCC drops to 7-7 on the season with the loss as they will wrap up the classic on Saturday as well as the first semester when they face Miles Community College Saturday morning.
WNCC played well for most of the contest. The Cougars led just twice in the contest at 2-0 and then 4-3. It was after the second lead, that Dawson opened the contest with a 17-2 run that saw the Bucs run off 11 straight points to lead 20-6.
Even with that Dawson lead, WNCC came back as they cut the lead to two points at 27-25 on three points from Travis Easterly, Jr., but Dawson ended up leading 33-26 at the break.
The second half saw the Cougars trail 35-32 early on back-to-back buckets by Willie Wilson and later 40-37 on back-to-back buckets by Kayden Nation. Dawson would then go on a 13-2 run to lead 53-39.
WNCC came back as they went on a 14-3 run of their own to make it 56-53 with 7:05 to play on a Nazir Griffin bucket. That was when Dawson held WNCC scored for nearly 5 ½ minutes as they led 68-53 before Elijah Burney buried two free throws with 1:46 to play. WNCC never could come back as they fell 76-63.
WNCC shot 37 percent from the field and were just 15 percent from behind the arc (4-of-26).
WNCC was led in scoring by Maurice Walker with 14 points while Wilson had 11 and Griffin with eight.
Dawson 33 43 – 76
WNCC (7-7) 26 37 – 63
WNCC
Maurice Walker 14, Anthony Simo 4, Nazir Griffin 8, Willie Wilson 11, Junior Galicia 6, Travis Easterly, Jr. 5, Stephen Ovia 2, Elijah Burney 6, Kayden Nation 7.
DAWSON
Ty Buckmon 19, Levi O'Brien 3, Seth Amunrud 13, Roniel Oguelwe 15, Justin Asi 12, Jordan Jasper 10, Demetric Kindle 2, Kur Maler 2.