MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team was on the brink of defeat before a big second quarter run allowed the Cougars to top McCook Community College 74-69 in Region IX South Sub-region action.

                The win keeps the Cougars in the hunt to win the south sub-region and host the regional tournament, something the Cougars haven't done since 2012. WNCC is 19-8 on the season and 8-1 in conference play and tied with Trinidad State College.

                WNCC had an 8-point lead over the first three minutes of the game. McCook took charge and responded with a 17-16 lead eight minutes into the game and outscored the Cougars 22-9 over the final 12 minutes of the first half to take a 39-25 lead at intermission.

                WNCC rolled out of the locker room to start the second half and cut the lead to 39-32 on a Maurice Walker 3-pointer. After that, McCook went on a big run and led 51-32. The Cougars started coming back as WNCC trailed 57-46 with 10:56 to play.

                WNCC couldn't get to within single digits as McCook went up 64-51 with 6:40 to play and led 66-55 on a dunk with 6:10 left. That was when WNCC made a run as Kayden Nation hit a 3-pointer and then JJ Harris followed with another triple to make it 66-61.

                McCook got another dunk to go up 68-61 with five minutes left. Travis Easterly, Jr., brought the Cougars back to 68-65 with back-to-back with four minutes remaining. McCook made one of two free throws for a 69-65 lead. Anthony Simo hammered home a dunk for a 2-point deficit and then Nation hit two free throws to tie the game at 69 with three minutes to play.

                Easterly, Jr., hit a bucket with 2:15 to play to give the Cougars their first lead since early in the first half at 71-69. No one scored again for the next two minutes until Simo hit two free throws with 14.9 seconds remaining for the 73-69 lead. Harris buried a free throw with six seconds to seal the win.

                WNCC shot 44 percent from the field and buried 10-pointers, led by Nation with four and Harris with three. Walker had two triples.

                McCook shot 48 percent from the field and nailed six treys. The difference was free throws as McCook was just 5-of-15 from the stripe.

                WNCC was out-rebounded 44-29 with Simo collecting nine boards for the Cougars.

                WNCC had three in double digits, led by Harris with 18, followed by Nation with 17 and Willie Wilson with 11.

WNCC                 25 49 – 74
McCook              39 30 – 69
WNCC
JJ Harris 18, Maurice Walker 8, Willie Wilson 11, Travis Esterly, Jr. 8, Stephen Ovia 2, Anthony Simo 10, Kayden Nation 17.
MCCOOK
Ty Foster 9, Zeki Cavli 15, Louie Tucker 8, Bryan Akanmu 2, Thabo Manyere 12, Martel Evans 15, Brandon Kabuya Mpoyi 8.