WNCC men fall to NJC

               STERLING, Colo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College played flat in suffering a 75-62 defeat to Northeastern Junior College Tuesday at Sterling, Colo.

               The Cougars, who registered a big win against Casper College on Saturday, was battling from behind in the game against the Plainsmen. NJC led at halftime 35-27. NJC led by as much as 15 points midway in the second half, 61-46.

               The Cougar cut the deficit to 10 points at one stretch, but couldn't get anything closer in dropping the South Sub-Region contest.

               "We came out flat and played flat for 35 minutes," WNCC coach Russ Beck said. "We did not communicate on defense and we turned the ball over way too much on offense. Until we can show up defensively every game we will not win consistently. Right now we win when we shoot well and lose when we don't"

               The Cougars were led in scoring by Charles Ward with 18 points followed by Quante Cooley with 10 points. Sebastian Suarez also chipped in nine points, while Zach Clemens had seven points.

               WNCC (105, 8-12) will be back in action Thursday when they travel to face Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyo., in another sub-region contest. They will then head to North Platte on Saturday to face sub-region leading North Platte Community College on Saturday. North Platte defeated McCook Community College 63-47 Tuesday night.

               WNCC will then return home to face Lamar Community College and Northeastern Junior College on Feb. 8 and 9.

WNCC                  27 35 -- 62

NE Colorado       35 40 -- 75

WNCC

Tahir Little 6, Zach Clemens 7, Quante Cooley 10, Charles Ward 18, Sebastian Suarez 9, Cody Johnson 5, Youssoupha Kane 4, Chad Calcaterra 2.