The Cougar men were on the opposite end, suffering through 39 percent shooting and watching a 7-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Runnin’ Lopes 59-57 behind 21 points from P.J. Reyes.
The women’s contest, unlike the men’s contest, featured plenty of offense after two straight contests where the Cougars scored a combined 83 points – 50 against Northeastern Junior College and 33 against Northeast Nebraska in losses.
Friday night, Amber Kistler, Stormye Everett and Shaquilah Davis each collected 18 points and Tawny Drexler poured in 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the free throw line to give the Cougar women their 16th win of the season.
“We finished a lot more of our shots and eliminated more of our turnovers so we could run our offense and make shots. That is what made us better on offense then NJC [on Wedneday],” Everett said. “It helps a lot when you have more players score in double digits so they [the other team] won’t be focused more on one player.”
The win against Lamar is something the Cougars definitely needed and they controlled the tempo from the get-go, both offensively and defensively. Lamar’s Sarah Beshears scored the opening bucket of the contest and then the Cougars took over.
The Cougars went on a 14-0 run over the next eight minutes to take a 14-2 lead. Everett was the workhorse, scoring eighth straight points. WNCC kept hammering away as Kistler nailed a 3-pointer to put the Cougars up 35-21. A few minutes later, Drexler had an old-fashioned play before Lorena Medeiros nailed an NBA-range 3-pointer at the buzzer to give WNCC a 41-26 halftime lead.
WNCC kept the Runnin’ Lopes at bay in the second half, going up 49-28 after three Drexler points. Later, the Cougars led 69-40 as SeLina Ysac picked the pockets of a Lamar player and found Kistler for the bucket.
Caley Fisher also came up big in the second half, scoring eight points, including two huge 3-pointers; the second pushing the score to 72-45 and the Cougars never looked back.
The big key in the game was turnovers, where the Cougars managed just 10 miscues to Lamar’s 22. WNCC had 16 steals, led by Davis and Everett with five each.
In the men’s contest, WNCC saw their 7-game winning streak snapped, but it wasn’t without a fight. WNCC coach Brian Joyce, who no-doubtedly was dejected, said they had a change to win just falling short.
“We have made a lot of progress because we have grown as a team and we got through the tough times just by staying together and I think tonight, for whatever reason, when we had a little big of adversity, we started to do some things on our own,” WNCC men’s coach Brian Joyce said. “That is uncharacteristic of this team the second half. It is a growing opportunity. We have young guys.”
As bad as the Cougar men were shooting, they stayed in the game until the final ticks. With about five minutes left in the game, Lamar built a 55-46 lead, only to watch the Cougars claw themselves back into the contest.
Scott Bamforth started things with a offensive putback followed by a Francisco Cruz 3-pointer to slice the lead to 55-51. After two free throws by Lamar, Daniel Smith had an old-fashioned 3-point play to cut the lead to 57-54 with 2:11 to play.
Neither team scored again until there was 15.7 seconds left on the clock when Ogo Adegboye hit two free throws to put Lamar up 59-54. Cruz came back and nailed an off-balanced trey with 5.4 seconds to play.
WNCC immediately fouled and Lamar’s Antowaine Snead missed two free throws, but the Cougars couldn’t get the rebound and Lamar ran out the clock in giving the Cougars their fifth defeat on the season.
“We did a really good job to fight back and put us in a position to win,” Joyce said. “I thought if we had a chance at the end, we would make a play to send it into overtime or win the game. Unfortunately, sometimes you get ahead of yourself thinking about the play instead of getting the ball and I think that was a mental lapse on our part.
“Give Lamar a lot of credit. They [Lamar] did a really good job. We had a great crowd tonight and they were very supportive. Lamar came in here and did a really good job and they deserved to win.”
WNCC had three players in double figures, led by Cruz with 16 points including four 3-pointers. Bamforth finished with 13 points and Chris Hamblin collected 11 points.
The Cougar men will next be in action Tuesday when they host North Platte Community College in a big sub-region contest beginning at 7:30 p.m. The women, on the other hand, will travel to Eastern Wyoming College on Tuesday for a contest against the Lancers at 6 p.m.
Women’s Game
Lamar 26 29 – 55
WNCC women 41 46 – 87
LAMAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Kathryn Clouser 11, Eli Cosme-Gonzalez 2, Jami Cagle 11, Krystina George 12, Camille Rand 5, Ruchelle McCracken 5.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Amber Kistler 18, Lorena Medeiros 3, SeLina Ysac 2, Shaquilah Davis 18, Stormye Everett 18, Janae Willis 1, Tawny Drexler 17, Caley Fisher 8, Juliana Bassetto 2.
Men’s Game
Lamar 30 29 – 59
WNCC men 27 30 – 57
LAMAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Ogo Adegboye 17, Scott Day 9, David Mecanovic 4, Jamal Edwards 2, PJ Reyes 21, Antwoine Snead 6.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Tarell Clark 7, Daniel Smith 4, Chris Hamblin 11, Scott Bamforth 13, Francisco Cruz 16, Sedrick McBounds 2, Larry Brown 4.
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