TWIN FALLS, Idaho – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team picked up the intensity in the second half in racing past a good Cape Fear Community College 78-67 at the Farmer’s Insurance Challenge in Twin Falls, Idaho.
The win was the Cougar’s 11th win of the season as four Cougars finished with double figure scoring. Marko Kovacevic, however, finished with a double-double in the contest with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
WNCC coach Russ Beck said this is a good win against a team that went to the national tournament last year and lost to the No. 2 team in the nation this season.
“This is a team that went to the national tournament and they have five or six returners on the team,” he said. “So, this is a pretty good win. They are well coached and they have pretty good players. I am glad that our Cougars got the win.”
Beck said it was the second half that really opened up the contest. WNCC held a slim 38-36 halftime lead and pushed that lead to eight points early on back-to-back 3-pointers by Raul Delgado to start off the half. Cape Fear, who has the third leading scorer in the nation with Emmanuel Andrews, came back to cut the lead to three points at 51-48 before WNCC went on other run.
`“The first half we were a little bit stagnant and we were taking some bad shots even though we held the third leading scorer in the nation to just nine points for the game. We did a good job on zeroing in on him and learned our mistakes from CSI, so we did a better job on their best player,” he said. “in the second half, we came out and ran a little bit of motion and we got a little bit more movement and the shots started to fall.”
Beck said the second half was a matter of runs and his team had just one more run then Cape Fear.
“The game is a game of runs and got a couple runs,” he said. “Fortunately we probably had one more run than they did.”
Raul Delgado paced the team with 22 points, four rebounds, six assists, two blocks and six 3-pointers. Also collecting double-digits was Du’Vaughn Maxwell with 18 points, five rebounds, six assists, and three blocks; Kovacevic with 11 points and five rebounds; and Brady Mason with 10 points, four rebounds, and four assists.
Shooting was a big difference in the contest. WNCC shot 40 percent from the field in the first half and then blitzed the next for 61 percent shooting in the second half. The opposite was true for Cape Fear, who shot 47 percent in the first half and then 41 percent in the second half. The big defensive statistic, however, was the Cougar defense did not allow Cape Fear to make a 3-pointer compared to four in the first half.
WNCC will finish off the CSI Tournament at 3:30 p.m. today when they take on Raleigh Sports Academy. Raleigh lost 105-40 to the College of Southern Idaho in the late game on Friday.
WNCC (11-2) 38 40 – 78
Cape Fear CC 36 31 – 67
CAPE FEAR CC
Emmanuel Andrews 9, Terrance Hampton 6, Faronte Drakeford 17, Tim Wilkes 2, EJ Williams 11, Randell Jones 6, Rakeem Wilson 4, Landon Atterberry 12.
WNCC
Tahir Little 3, Du’Vaughn Maxwell 18, Raul Delgado 22, Marko Kovacevic 11, Terrance Motley 8, Brady Mason 10, Mason Smith 2, Marcus Johnson 4.
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