The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team put five in double figures and used a late second-quarter run to earn a 77-65 South Sub-region win over Otero College Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.
WNCC moved to 12-8 overall and 2-1 in sub-region play. The Cougars will have two sub-region games next week when they travel to North Platte Community College on Tuesday before hosting McCook Community College on Friday.
The big key in the win was the final 10 minutes of the game. WNCC trailed Otero 50-49 after surrendering a 42-35 lead early in the second half. What the Cougars did in that final 10 minutes was go on an 18-4 run to go ahead 67-55 with 5:48 to play. Willie Wilson, who led the team with 14 points in the win, said after Friday's loss to Trinidad, the team didn't want to lose two straight on their home court for their fans.
"The key in the last 10 minutes was we knew how Friday's game ended, and today we didn't want our fans to see us lose back-to-back, especially at home," Wilson said. "We wanted to come out in conference play 1-1. I feel like just sticking together and every one just listening to each other made everybody stick together."
Wilson added the team started slow but came together in the second half.
"We started off a little bit going back and forth, but in the second half, after talking with coach and amongst ourselves, the team, I feel like we came out stronger and we finished stronger," Wilson said. "We played the second half with a lot more energy."
The big key in the win was the final 10 minutes of the game. WNCC trailed Otero 50-49 after surrendering a 42-35 lead early in the second half. What the Cougars did in that final 10 minutes was con on a 18-4 run to go ahead 67-55 with 5:48 to play. Wilson said the last 10 minutes was how they played on defense and the energy the used.
"The defense was big for us," he said. "We like to say stop, score, stop, score, stop, score and that is kind of what we did. We just wanted to make sure we locked in on getting a stop first and then getting a rebound and then getting our sets right on offense."
The first 30 minutes of the game was a battle. WNCC opened leading 13-4 in the first and only trailed once in the first half. Otero came back to cut the Cougar lead to 10-18 and later tied the game at 29-29. Wilson hit a bucket to put WNCC back on top.
Once again the lead was tied at 31, but WNCC got back-to-back buckets by Daniel Bula and Elijah Burney to go up 35-31 before settling for a 35-33 lead at intermission.
Otero hit the first bucket of the second half to tie the came before WNCC buried back-to-back 3-pointers by Wilson and JJ Harris to take a 42-35 lead. That was where Otero went on an 8-0 run to lead 43-42 and would lead 50-49 with about 10 minutes to play.
That was when the Cougars went wild, scoring seven straight points including a deep 3-pointer by Bula for a 56-50 lead. The Cougars later went on a 9-0 run to lead 67-54 including a 3-pointer by Maurice Walker. Otero never could get to within single digits and the Cougars went up by 17 points at 77-60 on a Wilson bucket and won 77-65.
WNCC shot 39 percent from the field and were 6-of-21 from beyond the arc. Otero shot 41 percent and were 5-of-20 from the 3-point line. The game was won at the charity stripe. WNCC hit 21-of-27 while Otero was just 8-of-12.
WNCC also won the rebound battled 47-37. Harris and Anthony Simo each had seven boards.
Five Cougars hit double digits. Wilson had 14 points followed by Harris, Walker, and Simo each with 12 points, and Bula tallying 10.
Otero 33 32 – 65
WNCC 35 42 – 77
OTERO
Isaiah Poindexter 15, Elijah McNeil 4, LaSon Walker 13, Ty Burbank 3, Felipe Carter 10, Tay Mosher 7, Jamir Todd 6, Josh Lawson 4, Antony Harris 3.
WNCC
JJ Harris 12, Maurice Walker 12, Anthony Simo 12, Willie Wilson 14, Travis Easterly, Jr. 6, Stephen Ovia 1, Elijah Burney 2, Daniel Bula 10, Kayden Nation 8.