STERLING, Colo. – Western Nebraska Community College put five in double figures and it was a shot by JJ Harris with 1.4 seconds left that gave the Cougar men an 83-81 win over Northeastern Junior College Tuesday night in Sterling, Colorado.

                The win was the Cougars fifth straight but more importantly gives the Cougars a 6-1 Region IX South Sub-region record, which is now tied with Trinidad State College, who is 6-1 in conference play. WNCC, 16-8, will be back in action Friday at home when they host Adam's State junior varsity before hosting NJC on Monday in another sub-region contest.

                WNCC head coach Billy Engel said it was a tough game and competitive between the two teams.

                "We found a way to play harder longer," Engel said. "They are an extremely physical team. Our mindset and mentality going into this game was that we needed some real toughness to match their physicality and then to utilize our foot speed to force them into quite a few turnovers, but they were able to beat us up on the glass throughout the game. The toughest thing we did was continue to fight and continue to get to the next play. I'm very proud of our effort and teamwork tonight."

                The Cougars and Plainsmen each shot over 50 percent for the game and the two teams connected on 19 3-pointers. WNCC had 11 treys with Harris burying four.

                Like Engel said, rebounding and turnovers were the key statistics. NJC out-rebounded the Cougars 35-19, but it was WNCC's speed and pressure defense that forced 21 NJC turnovers to just 11 for the Cougars.

                It was a contest that saw WNCC get nine different guys in the scoring column. Harris and Travis Easterly, Jr., each had 16 points in the game. Willie Wilson tallied 14 points while Kayden Nation had 11 and Maurice Walker tallied 10. Walker also added three 3-pointers.

                It was a contest where the first half neither team had more than a 5-point lead. WNCC led 15-10 early and then led 26-21 on an Anthony Simo bucket. NJC came back to take a 27-26 lead and the a 30-29 lead. NJC led late in the first at 39-37 when Easterly, Jr., hit a trey. After a technical free throw tied the game at 40-40, WNCC got a steal and a bucket by Maurice Walker for a 42-40 lead at halftime.

                NJC game out in the second half and went on a 14-7 run to lead 54-49. WNCC heated up, going on a 10-0 run that saw Kayden Nation hit a bucket for a 59-54 lead. WNCC went up by 10 points on a Harris trey at 66-56.

                NJC came back to tie the game at 71-71 with five minutes to play and then took a 77-73 lead with 2:21 to play. WNCC made it 77-76 with 1:16 left on a Harris trey and went ahead 79-78 with 50 seconds left on an Easterly, Jr., triple. WNCC pushed the lead to 71-78 on two Harris free throws with 21 seconds. NJC knotted the score at 81 with a trey with 13.2 seconds.

                That set up the last shot. Harris brought the ball up and worked the defender and then popped in a bucket just inside the 3-point arc with 1.4 seconds to play and then the Cougars swatted the ball away on the inbounds play to preserve the win.

WNCC (16-8)    42 41 – 83
NJC (10-11)        40 41 – 81
WNCC
JJ Harris 16, Maurice Walker 10, Willie Wilson 14, Stephen Ovia 4, Daniel Bula 4, Anthony Simo 6, Travis Easterly, Jr., 16, Elijah Burney 2, Kayden Nation 11.
NJC
Ryder McConnell 6, Kaami Domingo 11, Ryan Payne 10, Justin Sapoi 9, Jalen Foy 13, Deng Diew 14, Andre Cooper 6, Elijah Thomas 10, Michael Murphy 2.