WNCC men earn fourth win of season with 90-75 win over Lamar

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team received their first test of the season and passed it with flying colors, stopping Lamar Community College 90-75 that didn’t see the unbeaten Cougars pull away until the final five minutes.

Hauns Brereton paced the Cougar attack with a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds, but it was Justin Omogun 19 points with a stretch of eight straight, including an alley-oop dunk off an inbounds play that turned a 51-49 deficit into a 58-51 lead.

Brereton said that dunk was a momentum changer.

“That was a game changer,” the 6-foot-7 sophomore said. “That got us all energized and ready to go. We were D-ing up and everything after that alley-oop.”

The Cougars trailed just three in the contest and each time they made a quick response to get out of the deficit. The first was at 15-13 when Josh Turner nailed a 3-pointer for Lamar. After that, Aaron Turner hit a shot and then Joe Stock put the Cougars up 17-15. Ultimately, WNCC went on to lead by 11 at halftime, 45-34.

The second deficit occurred early in the second half as the Lopes went on a 13-0 run to lead 49-47, and then later at 51-49 before Omogun’s eye-popping, electrifying dunk that sent the crowd abuzz.

“We have been in a few situations where we were down but the strength of our team is we come together when we do get down,” Brereton said. “Ultimately, we don’t want to be down, but sometimes we do come into those situations and that is when we pull together.”

Omogun’s run spearheaded a Cougar attack that saw the Cougars outscore Lamar 41-24 the rest of the game. Still, Lamar sliced the lead to four points on several occasions, but each time WNCC’s defense came up big thwarting second-chance points and the Cougar offense getting some clutch buckets.

Brereton said this was a big test for them, especially after setting a school record 161-point contest the last time they stepped on the court Saturday against Oglala Lakota College.

“This was a big test and we were looking forward to this,” he said. “We take it just one game at a time and each game has its own goals. Today we wanted to come out and execute what we were working in practice, which was our offense and working on keeping people out of the middle.”

Once again, the WNCC had many stars of the game. Brereton might have led the team with the double-double, but Omogun finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. Also coming up big in the scoring column were Justin Standley, Brady Mason, Raul Delgado and Aaron Turner with nine points each.

A big key for the undefeated Cougars was shooting, where they blistered the nets for 48 percent while holding Lamar to just 39 percent shooting. They also out-rebounded Lamar 47-42 and committed just 11 turnovers.

Brereton said this team’s depth is definitely a plus.

“One of the specialties of our team is we are really deep,” he said. “Each player, whether they are on the bench or on the court, is capable of executing the plays and coming up big for us, whether it is scoring or rebounding.”

WNCC, 4-0, will return to action Saturday when they host Oglala Lakota College at 3 p.m.

Lamar (1-1) 34 41 – 75

WNCC (4-0) 45 45 – 90

LAMAR

Allen Tate 18, Arden Dennis 8, Sean Williams 4, Ron Waller 2, Trey Beverly3, Davoun Hunter 8, Josh Turner 20, Tidjane Diop 4, Tony Davis 8.

WNCC

Mike Peltz 1, Preston Eaton 4, Justin Standley 9, Joe Stock 7, Justin Omogun 19, Stephen Shepherd 1, Hauns Brereton 23, Raul Delgado 9, Aaron Turner 9, Marko Kovacevic 3.