The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team still kept its goal of hosting the Region IX tournament alive after posting an 82-76 sub-region win over North Platte Community College on Tuesday at Cougar Palace.
The Cougars received a double-double from Marko Kovacevic of 13 points and 12 rebounds, and received 23 points from Hauns Brereton in recording their 12th win of the season and pushing their sub-region record to 2-1. North Platte drops to 0-3 in the sub-region despite getting 22 points from their only sophomore on the court Karol Gruszecki.
“I am happy, but I am a little bit greedy. We had them down 12 points early in the first half and just let them back into the game by giving up some offensive rebounds,” WNCC coach Russ Beck said. “But, we hit 70 percent from the free throw line and we only turned it over seven times, and we did out rebound them but only by one, but we will take it. 
“We didn’t play great, but we will have to play with a lot of energy when we go play at EWC on Thursday. They play as hard as any team within Region IX.” The Cougars played well early in the game, vaulting to a 34-22 lead with 6:50 to play in the first half on a Preston Eaton 3-pointer. The Knights, though, came storming back with six straight points to slice the lead to 34-28.
WNCC built the lead back to double-digits, 42-30, with under two minutes to play before the Knights scored the last six points of the half to trail 42-36 at intermission.
WNCC kept the lead to nine to 10 points through most of the second half. WNCC led by as much as 12 points on a Joe Stock 3-pointer at 56-44. With 10:40 to play, the Cougars led 65-55. That was the last time the Cougars would be up by double digits as the Knights came back, slicing the lead to three points, 69-66, on a Greg Francisco bucket with 5:17 to play.
North Platte kept fighting, as they trailed by three points, 75-72, with two minutes to play on two Gruszecki free throws. Brereton, though, hit a clutch 3-pointer with 90 seconds to play followed by a big bucket by Aaron Turner to put the Cougars up by six with 30 seconds left.
The Cougars picked up the crucial sub-region win by hitting clutch free throws when they needed, going 6-for-6 after the Knights closed the gap to 69-66.
“Margin of victory is important when it comes down to hosting the tournament,” he said. “I just wanted our guys to be aggressive and we lost a little bit of our tenacity in a certain stretch. Yeah, we were running the clock down a little bit, but that was just the teeter-totter, where we were working the clock but we didn’t want to lose our aggressiveness. It was good that Hauns hit a big shot. It was a shot that not many of us were expecting, but he had the poise to score.”
North Platte outshot the Cougars from the field 50 percent to 43 percent, but the big difference was 3-point shooting where the Cougars nailed seven treys compared to just two for the Knights. Joe Stock buried three long balls, while Raul Delgado had two treys.
WNCC had four players in double figures. After Brereton’s 23 points, Stock finished with 14 points, Kovacevic had 13 and Mike Peltz had 10. North Platted also had four players in double figures. After Gruszecki’s 22 points, Nick Tomsick had 12 points, while Kamal Thomas and Igor LeBov each had 10 points.
Next action for the Cougar men will be Thursday night when they travel to Eastern Wyoming College for a 7:30 p.m.
Next action at Cougar Palace will be Wednesday when Cougar women will host Lamar Community College beginning at 5:30 .
North Platte (9-12) 36 40 – 76
WNCC (12-10) 42 40 – 82
NORTH PLATTE
Kamal Thomas 10, Nick Tomsixk 12, Eric Turner 6, Perrin Ashley 2, Igor LeBov 10, Darian Davis 5, Mark Nichols 2, Karol Gruszecki 22, Greg Francisco 7.
WNCC
Mike Peltz 10, Preston Eaton 3, Justin Standley 2, Joe Stock 14, Stephen Shepherd 3, Justin Omogun 4, Hauns Brereton 23, Raul Delgado 7, Aamir Kelliehan 1, Marko Kovacevic 13, Aaron Turner 2.
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