Suarez’ 25 points was only half the story on the night for the 6-foot-4 forward from Ancud, Chili, as he had a all-around good game, finishing with six rebounds while connecting on a 3-pointer and slamming home three dunks in the Cougars win. Suarez said that he is getting used to this organized style of basketball.
“I never played basketball in my life. I practiced since I was young, but I never played organized basketball,” he said. “Now, I am getting used to it because organized basketball is something different for me.”
Suarez’ career night was just one highlight for WNCC as the Cougars picked up their seventh win of the year after coming back from last week’s home lose to the College of Eastern Utah 100-89.
Suarez said while the team played well, they still need to buckle down on the defensive end.
“We can score a lot of points, but we need to worker on the defense. We cannot allow the other team to score 50 points against us,” Suarez said. “Scoring is not that hard for us, we just need to get better defensively. I don’t care how many points we score, we have to worry about the defense.”
WNCC’s offensive output was added by the bench where they combined for 67 of the 109 points on the night. Suarez led the way from the bench with 25 followed by Mason Smith with 18 and Allen Beck with 12.
Two starters also cracked the double-digit mark, paced by Brady Mason with 14 points and Raul Delgado with 12.
WNCC’s offense definitely hit on all cylinders on the night, shooting 67 percent from the field. The team also shared the ball well, finishing with 28 assists while forcing 21 Oglala turnovers. Mike Peltz, who leads the nation in assists, led the way with 11 assists. The Alliance graduate also finished with seven rebounds and had six steals.
The Cougars also put on another slam dunk show, finishing with 10 dunks. Delgado had four dunks, including a reverse jam in the second half.
As much as the Cougars’ excelled on defense, their defensive effort was so-so, allowing Oglala to shoot 49 percent from the field, including 47 percent (7 of 15) from the 3-point range. Tyson Heart lead Oglala with 27 points, including six 3-pointers.
WNCC, however, dominated play from the get go in scoring the first eight points of the contest. WNCC then pushed the lead to 27-8 behind six points from Allen Beck, including a eye-popping turnaround jumper to make the score 22-8. WNCC went on to plead 58-28 at halftime.
The second half was much the same for the Cougars as Smith opened the scoring with six straight points before Suarez took control with seven straight points to push the lead to 79-40. Suarez capped off his career night with a thundering dunk to put the Cougars over the century mark for the fifth time in eight games.
WNCC, 7-1, will be back in action Saturday when they face the Ft. Collins All-stars at 7 p.m. The Eastern Wyoming men will battle Oglala Lakota at 5 p.m. in the other men’s game of the Thanksgiving Classic. Eastern Wyoming College survived Ft. Collins All-stars 79-76 as a 3-point bucket by David Rivera came a second after time expired.
Oglala Lakota 28 22 – 50
WNCC (7-1) 58 51 – 109
OGLALA LAKOTA
Josh Mousseaux 2, Tyson Heart 27, Spur Pourier 13, Russell Running Hawk 8.
WNCC
Tahir Little 4, Allen Beck 12, Cal McCoy 4, Alonso Jurado 4, Brady Mason 14, Mason Smith 18, Raul Delgado 15, Sebastian Suarez 25, Marko Kovacevic 7, Terrance Motley 6.
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