WNCC men fall to College of Southern Idaho 72-67

                 The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team’s second half comeback came up short as the Cougars fell 72-67 to the No. 12-ranked and defending national champions the College of Southern Idaho Saturday evening.

                WNCC assistant coach Yahosh Bonner said WNCC played with a lot of energy in the second half and this is a game that the Cougars can learn from.

                “We played tough and we played hard,” he said. “We always play hard. We gave it all we had. There were a couple of opportunities late that we had and didn’t convert. We just fell short. We had a great effort from our bench and our whole team was into it the whole game. We are happy with the effort that they gave; we just wish we could have came away with the win for our fans. But, I feel we got better tonight.”

                Southern Idaho led the entire first half, bolting to a 7-0 lead before WNCC’s Marko Kovacevic put WNCC on the board with 16:43 to play. WNCC continued battling, slicing the lead to 12-10 on a Raul Delgado 4-point play, but CSI pushed the score to seven points on several occasions to take a 33-27 lead at halftime.

                WNCC came out a different team in the second half. Bonner said the team came out in the final 20 minutes ready to play and fought to the end.

                “We saw some things that were working for us and were trying to focus on those aspects of the game,” he said. “We just came out ready to go in the second half. We were pumped.
                CSI held a 42-35 lead after Fabyon Harris nailed a 3-pointer. WNCC came fighting back, going on a 12-3 run as the Cougars tied the contest at 45-45 on a Tahir Little bucket with 13:17 left. Du’Vaughn Maxwell came back a few seconds later and scored to give WNCC their first lead of the contest at 47-45. WNCC built the lead to 51-47 as Maxwell and Delgado each made buckets, but the defending national champs turned up the offense in scoring the next 10 points over a three minute period to take a 57-51 lead.

                Bonner said that even though they lost, they can take a lot from this game for the rest of the season.

                “CSI is a great program,” he said. “There is a lot of good that we can take from this game. I just hope we take it into our next game and continue to build as a team.”

                WNCC had five players finish in double figures, led by Kovacevic with 13 points. The big mad also pulled down 11 rebounds. Also getting double digits scoring was Little and Maxwell with 12 points each, and Delgado and Motley with 11 points each.

                Harris led CSI with 21 points, including connecting on six 3-pointers. Luke Cothron finished with a double-double for Southern Idaho with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

                The Cougars, 9-2, will return to action Tuesday when they host the Nebraska School of Technical Agriculture-Curtis in a men’s and women’s doubleheader.

First Game

LCCC                      25 42 – 67

NW Wyoming    40 48 – 88

LARAMIE COUNTY

Bruo Machado 2, Charles Cooks 22, LaMel Hamberg 13, Philip Freeman 4, Ude Ifeanyichulowu 6, Germain Decoste 8, Kolton Irby 2, Rodrigo Silva 10.

NORTHWEST WYOMING

Ty Ackelson 5, Guilherme Carabagiale 12, Jeffrey Solarin 15, Italo De Oliveira 3, Pietro de Andrade 6, Junior Coleman 10, Konner Frey 5, Chris Hansen 15, Diego Pasos 7, Jonathan Wakelin 2, Hudson Filho 3, Jeremy Beehler 5.

Second Game

Southern Idaho                                33 39 – 72

WNCC (9-2)                        27 40 – 67

SOUTHERN IDAHO
Pat Swilling 9, Fabyon Harris 21, Kevin Attila 3, Rafiel Gutrie 13, Paul Egwuonwu 6, Luke Cothron 15, Sebastien Michineau 3, Paul Brunch 2.

WNCC

Tahir Little 12, Mike Peltz 2, Brady Mason 2, Du’Vaughn Maxwell 12, Mason Smith 4, Raul Delgado 11, Marko Kovacevic 13, Terrance Motley 11.