WNCC men defeat McCook to go to 4-0 in sub-region

                MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team went to 4-0 in the sub-region as they withstood a 20-minute fire alarm delay in rolling past McCook Community College 93-78 Saturday night at McCook.

                It was the Cougars 16 win of the season and fourth straight. The Cougars have won seven of their last eight contests.

                Saturday’s contest started out tight as both teams were battling tooth and nail until midway through the first half the fire alarms went off and the gym had to be evacuated. WNCC coach Russ Beck said his team went to the bus and it was like having two halftimes.

                “The game was very, very choppy with the many calls, the fire alarm, and the physical play,” Beck said. “But I think we responded and we kept playing. We came out on top because we were less emotional.”

                After the unexpected delay, the cougars opened up the contest by leading 46-34 at halftime and then went up by 20 points, 66-44, on a Du’Vaughn Maxwell bucket. McCook sliced the lead late to 12 points, but never got any closer.

                Beck said it was a physical contest. There were a combined 61 fouls called. WNCC also shot 67 percent from the field.

                “We played good enough to win and there are still a lot of things we can work on like focusing at the end of the game,” he said. “This is a big sub-region win and it keeps us in control of our destiny. But we are focused on our next game against EWC and we want to get better as a team.”

                Four Cougars finished in double figures, led by Raul Delgado’s 22 points. Marko Kovacevic also had a nice game, finishing with 20 points and seven rebounds. Sebastian Suarez also pitched in 19 points, will Maxwell ended up with 10 points.

                WNCC, 16-3, will be back in action Tuesday when they host Eastern Wyoming College in a key sub-region contest beginning at 7:30 p.m. The Lancers picked up their second sub-region win Saturday night by defeating Northeast Community College 91-88 after leading 37-29 at halftime.

WNCC                   46 47 – 93

McCook                34 44 – 78

WNCC

Marko Kovacevic 20, Raul Delgado 22, Sebastian Suarez 19, Mike Peltz 4, Du-Vaughn Maxwell 10, Mason Smith 6, Terrance Motley 4, Tahir Little 1.