The Cougars,
who did not make one 3-pointer for the first all year, didn’t need to as they
blitzed the nets for 47 percent shooting and converted 33 of 47 free throws.
WNCC
coach Russ Beck said they made some adjustments in the second half and the
momentum turned around greatly.
“Lamar
isn’t a team that we wanted to hang around. They have shown they can come back.
They have won eight of their last 10 games and came from behind in a few games,”
Beck said. “We didn’t want the score to be close in the last five minutes. We
made some adjustments of how they were guarding the ball screen and were able
to get on a roll.”
A
big key in the win was the play of several players, but Preston Christensen
stepped up his game greatly. The freshman finished with a game-high 20 points,
including connecting on 14 of 15 free throws.
“Preston
has done a remarkable job coming back from a turf-toe situation and then coming
out of his redshirt year late,” Beck said. “He sure has added more depth and
more dimension to the guard lineup that we have.”
WNCC
also had three other players hit for double figures. Brandon Morley had a
double-double of 16 points and 17 rebounds, followed by 15 points from Diante
Mitchell and 12 points from Tyler Crosbie.
The
first half was 20 minutes where neither team ran away from each other. Lamar
led at intermission 32-30.
The
second half was all WNCC as they opened the half on a 9-0 run to lead 37-28.
They continued excelling in lead 51-38. Lamar came back to slice the lead to
double digits several times, including 65-60. But the Cougars kept the steam
going as they finished off the game with an 8-0 run that saw the Cougar players
getting a lot of points off of drives to the paint.
The
Cougars, 17-12, will wrap up the regular season today when they face
Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo. After that they will head to the
Region IX tournament that begins March 1.
“We
just want to come out and play our game and play,” Beck said. “We want to get
ready for the tournament so we want to be playing our best basketball right
know. So, if we cut down on our turnovers a little bit, I think we are close.”
Lamar 32
40 – 72
WNCC 30
57 – 87
LAMAR
Bayek Tutlan 3, Curties Redd 8, Chaun Miller 4, Taylor
Peterson 3, Theo Brown 11, Aaron Murray 4, Tiwian Kendley 29, Geodice Ortiz 8,
Chris Thompson 2.
WNCC
Tyler Crosbie 12, Preston Christensen 20, Youssoupha Kane
4, Diante Mitchell 15, DouDou Gueye 4, Joel Einfeldt 6, Jalen Griffiths 3,
Derrick Bowers 6, Brandon Morley 16, Julio Guity 1.
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