The East sub-region just got a little bit tighter Tuesday evening after the Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team played a complete game from start to finish in topping McCook Community College 105-88 Tuesday at Cougar Palace.
The Cougar, who evened their record at 10-10 and pushed their sub-region mark to 1-1, won the contest by putting four players in double figures and out-rebounding a talented McCook squad 55-26.
Marko Kovacevic made a huge impact in the middle, finishing with a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Hauns Brereton paced the Cougars with 27 points followed by Mike Peltz with 16 and Justin Omogun with 14 points.
WNCC coach Russ Beck said this is the championship team that he has seen first semester when they the Cougars bolted to an 8-1 mark in November.
“I had only seen that team play once this season and that was when we beat CSI,” Beck said. “Tonight we played physical and we played together. We had three main goals. We wanted to limit our opponents to 10 or less offensive rebounds, limit our turnovers to under 15, and we wanted to shoot 75 percent from the free throw line. We got all three of those goals. We had 13 turnovers, we were 76 percent from the free throw line, and we dominated on the boards tonight 55-26. McCook is a good ball club.”
The win was much needed for the Cougars, who stopped a four-game losing skid. And they stopped the slide against a talented McCook team that has scored 257 points in their last two wins over North Platte Community College and William Penn junior varsity.
“It is only one game and we reminded ourselves about that in the locker room after the game. We want to see this same team perform from game to game,” Beck said. “McCook is a team that really will run and gun. But, tonight, we wanted to keep them out of the paint. They are very athletic and have quick little guards that can get to the paint and create. If you saw the substitution pattern tonight, if you got beat to the middle, you were coming out of the game.”
The first half was a slugfest as two high-scoring offenses went toe-to-toe. McCook grabbed a 34-32 lead with 5:38 left in the first half on a Michael Cutright 3-pointer. After that, the Cougars turned up the juice, going on a 11-0 run that was started by back-to-back buckets by Hauns Brereton. Mike Peltz then got into the scoring as he scored his first points of the game on back-to-back buckets. WNCC went on to lead 44-35 at halftime.
The second half was tight early on as McCook cut the lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Darius Robinson with just three minutes gone in the half. WNCC turned the tide quickly as Joe Stock and Brereton each hit buckets and Kovacevic and Omogun each hammered home dunks to push the lead to 67-54.
The Indians kept fighting as they sliced the lead to nine points, 75=84 on a Shawn Tarver bucket. Kovacevic changed the momentum a few minutes later as he had a huge dunk with three minutes to play to give the Cougars a 93-80 lead. The Cougars then hit free throws down the stretch to pick up the win.
WNCC will next be in action Saturday when they travel to Sterling, Colo., to face Northeastern Junior College. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m.
McCook (12-9) 35 53 – 88
WNCC (10-10) 44 61 – 105
MCCOOK
Darius Robinson 31, Michael Cutright 18, George Pollard 8, Onyema Uti 5, Eric Cutright 8, Marquis Buleson 2, Shawn Tarver 13, Martin Minaric 3.
WNCC
Mike Peltz 16, Preston Eaton 6, Justin Standley 4, Joe Stock 9, Justin Omogun 14, Stephen Shepherd 2, Hauns Brereton 27, Raul Delgado 8, Brady Mason 8, Marko Kovacevic 11.
Mike Peltz 16, Preston Eaton 6, Justin Standley 4, Joe Stock 9, Justin Omogun 14, Stephen Shepherd 2, Hauns Brereton 27, Raul Delgado 8, Brady Mason 8, Marko Kovacevic 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment