WNCC men take down McCook 86-66

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team opened up a 6-point game and put the game on cruise control in registering a huge 86-66 sub-region win over McCook Community College Tuesday night at Cougar Palace.

The win was especially huge as its keeps the Cougars in contention for the No. 1 seed from the sub-region with a 3-2 mark. North Platte leads the sub-region with a 3-1 mark. North Platte has Northeast Nebraska this weekend and then will travel to Cougar Palace to face WNCC on next Wednesday.

WNCC freshman Joe Stock said this win is a huge momentum boost for the team.

“Our team is finally coming together and we picked the right time at the end of the season with a couple games left,” the freshman from Thibodaux, La., said. “We are playing our best basketball right now. That was a big win and that puts us in a run for first place in our sub-region. We have to beat North Platte by 15 points and we get first place and other then that we get second place.”

After the Cougars opened up the game and got ahead by 20 points late, the players kept playing as the attention turned to whether the team could score 83 points and give the fans in attendance free Runzas. Well, with 28.6 seconds left to play Mateus Chaves knocked home two free throws to make the crowd happy.

“That Runza promotion kept the excitement going, but the refs also dragged the game a little bit,” Stock said. “But we wanted to get 83 points for our fans. It was nice to please the fans and get a win at the same time.”

For a time there, it didn’t seem as if the game would be in the 60s or 70s for a final score. WNCC held a 37-31 lead at intermission. The Cougars, however, used the long ball from Cruz and Stock along with two electrifying dunks by Brylle Kamen and O’Rion Hughes to push the lead to 57-47.

Moments later, Stock nailed his second 3-pointer of the night and then Cruz went on a 9-point scoring spree, including back-to-back treys to put WNCC up 69-53 with six minutes to play. Cruz later notched his seventh 3-pointer and his 32^nd point of the night to the Cougars up 76-55 with 3:25 to play.

WNCC was mildly threatened early in the game, but each time kept the lead – there were only three lead changes and two ties in the contest. The big key in the contest was shooting as WNCC shot 57 percent from the field including a blistering 64 percent (9 of 14) from beyond the arc. Cruz was 7 of 9 from long range, while Stock was 2 of 3.

Cruz led the Cougars with 32 points and six rebounds, while Geddes had 16 points and six rebounds. Stock also chipped in 11 points for the Cougars.

McCook shot just 41 percent from the field and 19 percent from beyond the arc. Andrew Hanson led the way with 21 points followed by Marcus Landry and Antonio Dye with 12 points each.

WNCC, 17-10, will next be in action on Feb. 24 when they host North Platte Community College at 7 p.m.

McCook 31 35 – 66

WNCC (17-10) 37 49 – 86

MCCOOK

Darius Robinson 2, Nick Schneider 1, George Pollard 2, Antonio Dye 12, Marcus Landry 12, Andrew Hanson 21, John Hill 2, Shawn Tarver 7, Eric Cutright 7.

WESTERN NEBRASKA

Andre Marone 2, Saul Torres 4, O’Rion Hughes 4, Joe Stock 11, Mateus Chaves 5, Francisco Cruz 32, Brylle Kamen 8, Ritchie Mundende 4, Geddes Robinson 16.