WNCC men pick up fourth straight win, Cruz, Robinson combine for 48 points.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Western Nebraska Community College’s Geddes Robinson and Francisco Cruz combined for 48 points and the Cougar men captured their fourth straight victory with dominating 96-56 performance over the Air Force all-stars Saturday in the final day of the Air Force Prep tournament.

Cruz paced the Cougars with 25 points and two 3-pointers, while Robinson finished with 23 points. WNCC also received double figure scoring from Jasen Williams and Geoffrey Firmin with 12 and 11 points each.

WNCC coach Russ Beck said while his team played well, especially offensively, they still need some work on defense.

“The first half we came out and played to the level of our competition, even though it doesn’t reflect that in the scorebook,” he said. “We were not happy that we gave up 31 points at halftime. Our goal was to hold them under 50 for the game and we gave up 56.

“It wasn’t until Scott [Bamforth] got hurt that we started to pull together. We have to learn to come out with that intensity and toughness before something like that happens. We finished the game strong and had a strong second half. The guys were playing hard and they were thinking about Scott.”

WNCC held a 47-31 lead at halftime and then, with two minutes gone in the second half, Bamforth went down with a dislocated elbow on a 1-on-3 break. After that the Cougars picked up their intensity and coasted to the win.

“I think now both Geddes and Cruz are averaging over 20 points a game,” Beck said. “ Geoffrey worked a lot in the game in being assertive. We wanted to push the ball in transition, to wear those guys out.”

Beck said his team played well defensively in the second half, holding the all-star team to just 25 points.

“We want to be known as a defensive team,” he said. “We want to be one of the best defensive teams in the country. That comes with a lot of work and a lot of toughness, and a lot of communication. We are getting there, but we need to be able to do this against good teams as well.”

The Cougars, 4-1, will next be in action Thursday and Friday back at the Air Force Prep Invite. WNCC faces PacWest All-stars out of Las Vegas on Thursday and then Air Force Prep on Friday.

“PacWest is a team out of Las Vegas, and typically when an all-star team travels that distance they are usually pretty good,” he said. “I also had an opportunity to watch Air Force Prep and they are very good and physical. Everybody is about 6-3 to 6-6 and they can all shoot it. They also run the Princeton offense, so we will need a good week of practice.”

WNCC (4-1) 47 49 – 96
Air Force All-stars 31 25 – 56
WNCC
Geddes Robinson 23, Francisco Cruz 25, Jasen Williams 12, Geoffrey Firman 11, Scott Bamforth 7, O’Rion Hughes 6, Al-Akeem Watson 4, Brylle Kamen 3, Saul Torres 2.