GILLETTE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team put six players in double figures as the Cougars topped Miles Community College 101-91 Saturday afternoon to wrap up the Border Wars Classic in Gillette, Wyoming.

                The Cougars finished the Border Wars Classic at 2-1 against the three Region 13 teams while moving to 8-7 on the season to wrap up the first semester. WNCC will return to action on January 5 when they host Taylor Made Prep.

                The Cougars win on Saturday was one where they used a big run in the first half and then never relinquished the lead.

                With the score knotted at 11-11, the Cougars went on a 12-0 run behind buckets by a variety of players to grab a 23-11 lead. Miles cut the deficit to 27-20 only to watch WNCC score five straight to go back up 32-20 on a Willie Wilson bucket.

                Late in the first half, Miles sliced the Cougar lead to 42-37. WNCC ran off 11 points behind five points from Maurice Walker to lead 53-41 at halftime.

                The second half saw WNCC lead by double digits for the first 10 minutes. WNCC led 88-72 with about five minutes to play on a Kayden Nation old-fashioned 3-point play. Miles came back and scored 11 straight to cut the lead to five, 88-83 with 1:56 to play. WNCC answered on a bucket by Daniel Bula and two free throws by Nazir Griffin to go up 93-83. WNCC hit the century mark with 10 seconds to play as Walker nailed two free throws.

                WNCC had a team scoring effort with six in double figures. Bula led the way with 21 points along with nine rebounds. Bula also led the team with four steals. Wilson tallied 13 points while Walker had 12, and Griffin, Nation, and Junior Galicia each had 10 points.

                WNCC shot 51 percent for the game while only making 5-of-16 from beyond the arc. WNCC was 28-of-35 from the charity stripe.

                The Cougar defense forced 24 Miles turnovers. Miles, however, shot 54 percent from the field and buried seven 3-pointers. Miles was 20-of-30 from the free throw line.

Miles                    41 50 – 91
WNCC (8-7)       53 48 – 101
MILES
Ethan Bell 8, Payton Kokot 23, Ryder Lee 11, Aguir Dawam 4, Ethan Venema 9, Dillon Gee 3, Koak Kok 7, Daniel PiechMeat 22, Kris English 4.
WNCC
Maurice Walker 12, Nazir Griffin 10, Willie Wilson 13, Stephen Ovia 9, Daniel Bula 21, Junior Galicia 10, Anthony Simo 7, Danilo Glisovic 2, Elijah Burney 7, Kayden Nation 10.