It was a barnburner to the final seconds of the Western Nebraska Community College and Casper College semifinal contest Monday evening at Cougar Palace in the men’s Region IX tournament.
In the end, Casper’s Deninson Burguillos sank two free throws with 2.5 seconds to play and the Thunderbirds held the Cougars to without a point in the final two minutes of the contest in prevailing 70-68 and a berth in the Region IX championship game Tuesday night.
Casper will face Otero Junior College, an 88-81 winner over Miles Community College for the berth at the national tournament that begins next week. For the Cougars, they end their season at 26-7. WNCC coach Russ Beck said that it was a good game and they left everything out on the floor.
“I thought both teams really, really competed. Neither team quit,” Beck said. “It comes down to some simple things here and there, but that is how life is though. You have to do the simple things to do the great things. I am proud of our boys. We competed and had a wonderful season. They are great young men. We had some great sophomores and some of them will be really hard to replace. We have some great freshmen and we need to remain focused and we will see what kind of character we have if we stay true to the principals we have to be a Cougar. I love my boys and I am real proud of them.”
Casper coach Joel Davidson said this was a classic WNCC and Casper battle in an atmosphere that was electric. Davidson said they kept believing and escaped with the win. “This is a huge win. Western Nebraska is a great team and there was a great crowd here tonight,” Davidson said. They had us reeling all night long, but we are a sophomore-laden team. We have been in close games this year and we had guys step up. Tonight we were able to step up. Three of our better players had off nights tonight and two guys stepped up big. Dominique Lee and Burguillos hadn’t been factors lately and they had huge nights. Our depth has been our key all year. It epitomizes our season.
“Otero is a great team. They are well coached and they are sophomore heavy. They have great guards and they have all the pieces with athletic and big physical kids. They will expose our mistakes so we will have to play the best game of the tournament to advance.”
This was a slugfest from the opening tip as both teams played hard and neither team was going to give an inch. Casper opened up a 27-21 lead in the first half and led 29-23 before WNCC made a furious comeback behind two 3-pointers from Sebastian Suarez to help the Cougars take a 38-31 lead before Casper got a tip-in at the buzzer to trail 38-33 at halftime.
WNCC led the entire second half except for the final 2.5 seconds. The Cougars had leads of six points on a number occasions and even led by eight, 49-41. The turning point in the contest came in the final two minutes. Suarez knocked home his fifth trey with two minutes from the corner to give the Cougars a 68-61 lead.
That was the last time the Cougars would score as Casper’s Jerrold Brooks nailed a 3-pointer seconds after Suarez’ jumper. Both teams then turned the ball over before Tyler Larson got the T-Birds to within two, 68-66.
WNCC, again, turned the ball over in the backcourt and Larson nailed one of two free throws, but Dominique Lee got the offensive rebound and was fouled with 46.9 seconds to play. Lee nailed one of two charity shots to tie the game. The Cougars then turned the ball over again in the backcourt but Casper missed a 3-pointer with five seconds to play.
Casper’s Burguillos, however, got the offensive rebound and was fouled with 2.5 seconds to play and sank both shots for the lead. WNCC’s desperation 3-pointer was slightly off the mark sending the Casper bench onto the floor in celebration.
The big key in the game was bench scoring, where Casper outscored the Cougars 37-4. Otherwise the contest was evenly contested as Casper shot 40 percent from the field and knocked home five 3-pointers, while WNCC shot 39.7 percent from the field with six 3-pointers.
Casper had three players in double figures. Larson led the team with 16 points followed by Darrious Curry with 13 points and Lee with 11 points.
The Cougars had four players in double digits. Suarez led the way with 20 points, including five 3-pointers. Motley and Raul Delgado each had 17 points, while Du’Vaughn Maxwell had 10 points.
Game One
Miles 34 47 – 81
Otero 47 41 – 88
MILES
Sian Laine 14, Tiron Brown 8, Tyree Anderson 27, Jeremy Nicholas 8, Demetre Wilkins 4, Ashante Ross 13, Ayibakuro Preh 7.
OTERO
Perryonte Smith 3, Wes McKenzie 21, Lucas Archuleta 13, Brandon Harris 11, Dylan Fritsch 5, Anthony Johnson 3, Oscar Garcia 13, Adam Link 6, Chris Strong 13.
Game Two
Casper 33 37 -- 70
WNCC 38 30 -- 68
CASPER
Darrious Curry 13, Remi Dibo 5, Denzel Douglas 3, Dominique Lee 11, Sam Johnson 4, Deninson Burguillos 10, Jerrold Brooks 8, Tyler Larson 16.
WNCC
Tahir Little 2, Du’Vaughn Maxwell 10, Raul Delgado 17, Sebastian Suarez 20, Marko Kovacevic 2, Terrance Motley 17.
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