CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team saw its six-game winning streak snapped at the hands of Laramie County Community College Tuesday evening in Cheyenne, Wyo., 70-66.
The Cougars suffered only their third defeat of the season because of poor shooting, especially free throws down the stretch. The Cougars were 18-of-27 from the charity stripe, but only 6 of 10 in the final two minutes.
WNCC coach Brian Joyce said while he was happy with the way his team kept fighting to stay in the game, it was the little things that worried him.
“The biggest issue was what got us in position to be down and that was not having stops and when you do that, it puts you in a position where it hard for you to get out of a hole,” Joyce said. “We needed to take one more step, one more slide. We needed to get a little bit more effort n challenging a shot and a little bit more effort in boxing a guy out and going and getting a rebound. Too many times we had multiple breakdowns on the same possession by multiple guys and that created problems. We will go back to work tomorrow and address it and get better at it.”
While the Cougars might of lost on the scoreboard, they did show heart in fighting back in at least trying to win the game. WNCC shot more free throws then the opposition, which was something that pleased Joyce; they just needed to make a few more.
“We got to the line, which was our goal. We shot more than they did on their home court, and that is a goal of ours. We just need to step up and hit the shots. But, the fact that we got there and gave us a chance to win at the end of the game was good. We just dug ourselves too deep of a hole.”
WNCC trailed by nine points on a couple of occasions with under three minutes to play and could have folded. They didn’t as they fought back, clawing their way to within a single basket.
One of the big reasons of the Cougars comeback was a full-court press that generated plenty of steals to get the ball back. With 1 minute, 28 seconds to play, Laramie County broke the press and scored to go up 64-55.
That was when WNCC made the charge as Scott Bamforth hit two free throws and then Francisco Cruz scored off a steal on the inbounds play to slice the lead to 64-59. Daniel Smith then nailed one of two free throws to cut the deficit even further at 64-60.
The Golden Eagles forged back ahead by six points on two free throws by Kaipo Sabas. Bamforth came right back and hit a bucket with 28.4 seconds to cut the lead to 66-62. LCCC pushed ahead by five with 9.5 seconds to play. Cruz came back down the court and nailed a 3-pointer to bring WNCC to within 68-66.
But Dionte Clayborn iced the game with under two seconds to play by hitting two free throws.
WNCC, at one time, was controlling the contest, leading 21-12 in the first half and led 28-27 at halftime.
The second half was a different story as WNCC couldn’t get any stops on the Golden Eagle offense as they tied the game at 37-37 with 14:14 to play. WNCC led twice more, the final time on a Lloyd Hickinson dunk, before LCCC opened up a 17-8 run to lead 56-49 with five minutes to play.
WNCC had three players hit the double figure column, led by Cruz’s 23 points. Bamforth added 12 points and Smith had 10 points.
LCCC was led by Travis Bostick with 17 points.
WNCC (9-3) will next be in action at the EWC tournament. The Cougars take on an EWC Alumni team at 5 p.m. on Friday and then Northwest Wyoming at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
WNCC (9-3) 28 38 – 66
LCCC 27 43 -- 70
WESTERN NEBRASKA
Chris Hamblin 6, Larry Brown 4, Daniel Smith 10, Scott Bamforth 12, Francisco Cruz 23, Lloyd Hickinson 4, Saul Torres 2, Virgil Baker 2, John Bright 1, Ali Djim 2.
LARAMIE COUNTY
Romaric Lasme 4, Andy Bailey 8, Isaac Jenkins 7, Donald Boston 1, Travis Bostick 17, Mike Johnson 6, Kaipo Sabas 11, Dionte Clayborn 12, Dejan Bratic 4.
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