TORRINGTON, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team overcame a 16-point halftime deficit to register an astonishing 89-82 win over Eastern Wyoming College at the Verl Petsch Activities Center in Torrington, Wyo., Tuesday evening.The contest definitely was a tale of two halves for the Highway 26 rivals.
“They [EWC] played harder than we did in the first half. Then, in the second half, our guys made a decision to really suck it up,” WNCC coach Brian Joyce said. “They did a good job of hanging in there, not losing our composure, and doing it one stop at a time. We just fought back. Eastern Wyoming did a good job in first half and our guys could have laid down, but they responded and just did it one stop at a time. I am proud of them.”
EWC totally dominated play in the first 20 minutes, ripping the nets at a 62 percent rate from behind the arc (8 of 13) and 54 percent from the field. The second half, the Lancers cooled off, falling to 25 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 32 percent from the field.
Lancer Coach Casey Jones said his team didn’t execute like they needed to in the first half.
“We talked about it at halftime where the shooting percentage was the name of the game. We knew we weren’t going to shoot it 68 percent in the second half,” he said. “We knew the rebounds were even, so we said if we could out-rebound them, we would win. We did not out rebound them and I don’t need to see stats to know we lost the rebounding battle in the second half, and that was the ball game.”
WNCC out-rebounded the Lancers 39-36, but the big difference in the contest was turnovers. WNCC committed just 17 turnovers, while the Lancers had 24, including two big ones with under 50 seconds to play that essentially was the difference in the ball game.
“That is the best we have played, which was fun. But, it comes down to one turnover, which lost the basketball game,” he said. “It is proof of how fragile this sport is possession by possession. We teach possession by possession all year and had we inbounded the basketball and got fouled and shot free throws like we shoot free throws, we would have won the game.”
It didn’t happen that way. EWC controlled the first half, running out to a 49-33 halftime lead. In the second half, the Cougars changed the complexion of the game in the first seven minutes, outscoring the Lancers 24-11 to slice the lead to 60-57.
WNCC’s Daniel Smith brought the Cougars back with five straight points to tie the game at 62 with 10:54 to play. The Lancers responded right back, grabbing a 65-62 lead off three points by Arunas Simanavicius.
Both teams kept swapping baskets left and right until the Lancers jumped to a 74-70 lead off a 3-pointer by Bayard’s Zach Serda with about six minutes to play. WNCC fought back as Larry Brown had an old-fashioned 3-point play and then hit a bucket later to slice the lead to 76-75. Seconds later, Scott Bamforth nailed two free throws with 5:07 to play to give the Cougars their first lead of the game since the 18 minute mark of the first half.
EWC, however, fought back grabbing a 3-point lead on a bucket by Caleb Moore and two free throws by Matt Pritchett to take an 80-77 lead with 3:12 to play. EWC’s Moore put the Lancers up by three, 82-79, with 1:25 to play.
After a WNCC timeout, the Cougars’ defensive intensity picked up another notch as Chris Hamblin hit a bucket. Then, the Lancers turned the ball over on an inbounds play and WNCC immediately took advantage as Smith made an old-fashioned 3-point play with 47.9 seconds to play to put the Cougars up 84-82.
The Lancers followed with another turnover, which resulted in Smith nailing two free throws for the Cougars to widen the lead to 86-82 with 31.2 seconds to play. EWC still was in the contest, but an offensive foul, gave the ball back to the Cougars and Scott Bamforth nailed 3 of 4 free throws to give the Cougars their fourth straight win.
Joyce said free throw shooting and defense won the contest for the Cougars. WNCC nailed 18 of 25 free throws with Bamforth was 5 of 6 from the line for 23 points. The freshman from Albuquerque, N.M., also rattled home four 3-pointers.
“Our guys did a good job of us getting to the line in critical times of the game,” he said. “There is no question that the defense was huge. That is what wins championships and if we are not going to do it, we are not going to have a chance. Our guys in the second half showed what we are capable of doing.”
The Cougars placed five players in double figures. Besides Bamforth’s game-leading 23 points, Brown finished with 18 points, followed by Smith with 14, Francisco Cruz with 11 and John Bright with 10.
The Lancers had three players hit the double-digit scoring column. Winston Harris finished with 19 points, including five 3-pointers, before fouling out with eight minutes left in the game. Simanavicius finished with 19 points, including 9 of 10 from the charity stripe, while Matt Pritchett had 12 points.
The Lancers’ leading scorer Lance Korell left the game minutes into the contest with an ankle injury and never returned from the locker room.
“We lost our two best players, one in the first minutes of the game in the leading scoring and one to fouls early in the second half,” Jones said. “It just shows how much we need those two boys, Lance and Winston. You know when you are only seven deep and you lose two guys, it shows toward the end of the game.”
Both teams will be back in action this weekend in the TEAM Chevrolet Thanksgiving Classic at Cougar Palace. The Lancers will battle Trinidad State Junior College at 3 p.m., while the Cougars will face Williston State at 7 p.m.
Joyce said his team is starting to get some confidence and he hopes it continues this weekend.
“We are a relatively a young team with our program only a year and a few months into it,” he said. “When you get wins like this, I think it gives our guys confidence and shows what we can be successful. I think this is a good test for us. I was proud of how our guys responded.”
WNCC (7-2) 33 56 – 89
EWC (3-4) 49 33 – 82
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Lloyd Hickinson 2, Daniel Smith 14, Chris Hamblin 9, Scott Bamforth 23, Francisco Cruz 11, Virgil Baker 2, Larry Brown 18, John Bright 10
EASTERN WYOMING
Billy Butler 6, Jacarri Culberson 6, Matt Pritchett 12, Leo Morris 6, Arunas Simanavicius 18, Zach Serda 3, Caleb Moore 6, Winston Harris 19, Hadden Jasper 6.
Three-Pointers: WNCC 5 (Bamforth 4, Hamblin 1), EWC 10 (Harris 5, Pritchett 2, Morris 1, Serda 1, Simanavicius 1).
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