NORTH PLATTE – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team captured the south sub-region title with an 80-62 win over North Platte Community College on Tuesday night at North Platte.
The win moves the Cougars to 11-2 in the sub-region and 24-5 overall. More importantly, the win gives WNCC the right to host the Region IX tournament, which runs March 9-13. The last time WNCC hosted the men’s regional tournament was back in 2007, while the college hosted the women’s regional in 2009.
“I think the boys played really hard, especially in the second half when we really pulled together,” WNCC coach Russ Beck said. “Our team defense was good. We were able to get stops when we needed. We shared the ball and I am very pleased with our effort and our togetherness in this game and we were able to come out with a win.”
The Cougars trailed 19-11 with 12 minutes left in the first half but then picked up the offense, outscoring North Platte 25-9 to take a 36-28 lead into halftime.
The second half, WNCC kept the lead around double digits for the majority of the half as they won the sub-region with a defense that kept North Platte at bay.
“Our defense was the key [after we were down 19-11] and really keying in and not fouling and moving our feet,” Beck said. “We were way more emotional in the first half when we didn’t get a call then the second half. When we just hunkered down and played through every mistake we played well. I think sometimes we are our biggest enemy.”
Marko Kovacevic finished with double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Raul Delgado collected 24 points, including four 3-pointers.
Also hitting the double-figure column were Du’Vaughn Maxwell with 11 points and Mike Peltz with 10 points.
“Raul and Marko have struggled over the past week, but both those guys game out and played hard, showing that they have a lot of gas left in the tank,” Beck said. “We don’t want to be done playing anytime soon.”
North Platte was led in scoring by Nick Tomsick with 27 points followed by Ben Wilson with 16 points.
Beck said that they accomplished part of their goals of hosting regionals, but that now means they have to work even harder to get the next goal on their list, a regional title.
“Hosting the regional tournament is a great thing, especially for our fans and we get to play some more home games,” he said. “However, it puts an enormous target on our backs since it has been a good five or six years since a team that has hosted has gone on to the national tournament. We definitely want to change that. I told the boys that we know have to be twice as focused, work twice has hard in order for us to get what we want. We still have one more game against Casper in the regular season, which we just want to prepare ourselves and get better.”
WNCC (24-5) 36 44 – 80
North Platte (17-13) 28 34 – 62
WNCC
Raul Delgado 24, Marko Kovacevic 21, Du’Vaughn Maxwel 11, Mike Peltz 10, Sebastian Suarez 7, Terrance Motley 6, Tahir Little 1.
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