It was a tale of two halves for the Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team Monday night at Cougar Palace against Gillette College.

                Gillette shot 72 percent from the floor in the first half and buried nine 3-pointers as the Pronghorns led 57-35 at halftime. The second half saw a different Cougar team, outscoring Gillette 56-45 but it wasn't enough as Gillette recorded the 102-91 win.

                WNCC got behind the eight-ball early as Gillette led 17-3 early. WNCC started to come back as they cut the deficit to single digits at 17-8 on a Kellon Harris bucket and were within eight points at 36-28. Gillette cranked it up to lead 43-38 and scored the final six points of the half to lead 57-35.

                The second half saw the Cougars score 56 points and looked like a different team from the first half.

                WNCC by 28 early in the second after Gillette's Dane Christensen nailed back-to-back threes. WNCC came back to get to within 19 at 79-60 that included five points from Reece Randolph.

                It was only a 15-point game with 3:48 to play, 88-73, when Elijah Hollins buried a 3-pointer. WNCC never could get it to within 12 points the rest of the way except the final 102-91 when Hollins buried his seventh 3-pointer of the game.

                Hollins led the Cougars with 31 points with seven threes and five rebounds.

                WNCC had four other players in double figures. Kendrick Preston tallied 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, while Mathiang Maker had 14 points with eight rebounds. Harris and Randolph each had 11 points. Randolph buried three triples while Harris had two.

                WNCC, 2-4, will be back in action Tuesday night when they travel to Rock Springs, Wyoming, to face Western Wyoming Community College. The Cougars will then hit the road over the weekend when they are at Twin Falls, Idaho, to face College of Southern Idaho on Friday and Colorado Northwestern on Saturday.

Gillette 102, WNCC 91
Gillette                57 45 – 102
WNCC                35 56 – 91
GILLETTE
Dane Christensen 13, Andrew Fuquay 21, Caleb Hollenbeck 18, Jefferson Neary 13, Dorell Thomas 14, Vinnie Sprading 2, Malique Moss 6, Sayed Sayed 3, Javonne Nesbit 10, James Otieno 2.
WNCC
Kellon Harris 11, Elijah Hollins 31, Mathiang Maker 14, Elijah Burney 2, Kendrick Preston 15, Noah Jones 3, Reece Randolph 11, Isaiah St. Preux 2, Witold Czerenkiewicz 2.