Delgado, Suarez combine on 10 3-pointers in win over Trinidad State

                Raul Delgado and Sebastian Suarez combined for 10 3-pointers and 48 points and the Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team went 2-0 in the South Subregion with an 107-86 win over Trinidad State Junior College Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.

               Delgado and Suarez each finished with five 3-pointers and the Cougars connected on 67 percent of their shots, including 12 of 19 shooting from beyond the arc. Suarez paced all scorers with 25 points, while Delgado pitched in 23 points.

               "We wanted to get both these games at home and now the challenge is for us to go and get two wins on the road," WNCC coach Russ Beck said. "You know, good teams win at home and great teams, championship caliber teams, win on the road. So, we are trying to focus on Northeast Nebraska and McCook next weekend."

               Saturday's contest was another performance that the Cougars excelled on both ends of the court. But, itwasn't until the second half that the Cougars started to open up the contest and it didn't take much motivation for WNCC to pick up the intensity.

               "The boys had a lot of motivation in the second half," Beck said. "That hard foul on Raul when he hit the floor was the critical junction for us. i walked into the locker room and I said do I need to motivate you or is that motivation enough for you to come out and play hard the second half. We talked about a few adjustments that we wanted to make and we came out and played hard. We really wanted this win."

               The Cougars led 51-39 at halftime, but it was the final play of the half that pushed the Cougars intensity to a new level after Delgado was sent to the floor after a hard foul. Delgado managed to get up and sank two free throws, but the play was enough to awaken the Cougars.

               Trinidad State scored the first point of the second half on a free throw, but after that, WNCC went on a 10-0 run that was highlighted by six points from Marko Kovacevic and a 3-pointer from Mason Smith for a 61-40 lead. Moments later, Du'Vaughn Maxwell put up another highlight as he made a behind his head pass to Kovacevic. That pass and dunk started another 9-0 run that saw the Cougars go up 73-49.

               Trinidad cut the lead to 85-69, but that was when the Cougars went on a 18-4 run that saw Suarez nail three 3-pointers and Maxwell slam home two electrifying dunks for a 103-73 lead.

               What pleased Beck the most about the win was the balanced scoring and the way they shared the ball. WNCC finished with 27 assists, led by Mike Peltz with 11.

               "It was great to see the confidence that Sebastian Suarez and Raul Delgado are shooting the ball," Beck said. "We also had pretty balanced scoring with 25, 23, 19 and 10 points. The key stat of the night is that we had 27 assists and only 11 turnovrs. We are really being unselfish in finding the open man and shooting when we need to."

               Besides the 48 points from Suarez and Delgado, Kovacevic  had 19 points and six rebounds, while Terrance Motley finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Maxwell also finished with nine points, five rebounds and three assists, while Peltz and Tahir Little each had seven points.

               WNCC, 14-3, will look to go 4-0 in the subregion with road contests this weekend at Northeast Community College and McCook Community College.

               "This is a long road trip and the last two years we have gone to Northeast Nebraska and lost by one point at the buzzer. The first year for me was a tip in after I left our best rebounder at home because he was late to the bus. The second year we had a shot at the buzzer and missed. If we work hard enough we are hoping to get a win. Then McCook is always a tough place to play because it is so closed in. They will play hard and I was impressed with their team when they played against CEU, so we have a tremendous challenge for us to go out and get two wins on the road."

Trinidad (5-10)                   39 47 -- 86

WNCC (14-3)                     51 56 -- 107

TRINIDAD
Phil Watts 8, J'My Holloway 13, McArthur Gaines 2, Devonte Malcolm 22, Bryant Evans 20, Tyrell Williams 2, Juhreece Thompson 9, Devonte Upson 8, Terrence Smith 6.

WNCC
Tahir Little 7, Mike Peltz 7, Du-Vaughn Maxwell 9, Mason Smith 5, Raul Delgado 23, Sebastian Suarez 25, Marko Kovacevic 19, Terrance Motley 10, Marcus Johnson 2.

WNCC women top Trinidad State behind 15 points from Aratani

                The Western Nebraska Community College's Jessica Aratani finished with 15 points and the Cougar women's basketball team shot 50 percent in the second half to capture its first subregion win of the season with a commanding 70-42 win over Trinidad State Junior College on Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.

               The Cougars shot just 32 percent from the field in the first half but found its scoring touch in the second half on connecting on 17 of 35 shots in running to the win. Aratani led all scorers with 15 points and seven rebounds, including scoring eight early points in the second half to lead the Cougars.

               WNCC coach Dave Harnish said his team played well in the second half.

               "We played better second half and had better ball movement as well as ball intensity," Harnish said. "As your intensity goes up so does your scoring and knocking shots down. It is two nights in a row that I thought we played well in the second half. This was a tough turnaround game and I am proud of them to get the win, which we needed desperately."

               It did take a little while for the Cougars to get uncorked after playing so hard in a 2-point loss to Otero Junior College on Friday. Trinidad State held an 8-7 lead on a bucket by Destiny Bregman. After that, though, it was all Cougars as WNCC went on a 11-0 run that was highlighted by four points from Leona Garrett for an 18-8 lead.

               WNCC doubled up the Trojans at 30-15 as Kelsey Doddridge canned a trey and Aratani converted on four free throws. The Cougars led 30-20 at halftime.

               The Cougars' second half was a complete contest as the defense and offense was gelling. Doddridge started the half with a 17-foot bank shot from the corner. After that Aratani took over to put the Cougars up 48-28. Trinidad State had one small 8-0 run to cut the lead to 15, but WNCC quickly rebounded with an 11-0 run of their own, capped by a Lisa Durden 3-pointer, to lead 62-36.

               Harnish said this was a good win for his squad as they came back from a bruising contest on Friday to get the win.

               "It is always tough coming back after playing a hard-fought game last night to turning around and playing today. It was a matter of just sucking it up and getting after it," he said. "We were a little sore and ChaCha kind of sprained her ankle, but from a positive point, we didn't play a great game, we played well enough to win. We played well in spurts in terms of offensively and defensively. i thought defensively we were strong throughout the game. We had balanced scoring and balanced play and the team playing together was encouraging."

               WNCC had three players hit double figures. Besides Aratani's 15 points, Garrett had 12 points and nine rebounds, and Doddridge had 10 points and five rebounds. Idil Ozbayrak finished the contest with just six points, but led the team with eight rebounds. The freshman from Turkey also dished out seven assists and had four steals.

               WNCC, 14-4, will next be in action next weekend when they face Northeast (Neb.) Community and McCook Community College on the road in subregion contests.

              

Trinidad (3-10)                   20 22 -- 42

WNCC (14-4)                     30 40 -- 70

TRINIDAD

Lindsey Pippin 6, Justine Gallegos 2, Nicole Herrera 2, Stephanie Knowles 4, Jaclyn Becker 4, Destiny Bregman 9, Sandra Morales 1, Haley Sheldon 14.

WNCC
Samantha Sanders 8, Jasmine Shaffer 3, Leona Garrett 12, Lisa Durden 8, ChaCha Ofoegbu 8, Idil Ozbayrak 6, Kelsey Doddridge 10, Jessica Aratani 15.

WNCC men knock Otero in first subregion win

                 The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team lead start to finish and captured its first subregion win in dropping Otero Junior College 75-65 Friday night at Cougar Palace.

                Four Cougars finished in double figures in the contest as WNCC sizzled the nets for 44 percent shooting while holding a dangerous Rattler team to 32 percent shooting, including a 7 of 33 shooting from beyond the arc.

                The win was huge in subregion standings as the winner of the South subregion will host the Region IX tournament in March, and with a revamped subregion lineup, this win will go a long ways in helping the Cougars achieve that goal.

                The Cougars will have another sub-region contest this afternoon at 3 p.m. when they face Trinidad State Junior College.

                WNCC coach Russ Beck said this win puts them in control of their own destiny in achieving that goal of hosting regionals.

                “We have to turn our focus to tomorrow’s [Saturday afternoon] game because this game will not mean anything to us if we have a letdown tomorrow,” Beck said. “Right now we are in a position that we control our own destiny. Nobody has to win or lose for us to be in a position to host the tournament. We just want to take it game by game focus. We want this tournament to be here because the fans are so great.”

                The Cougars accomplished the win by coming out ready to play. Beck said it is not too often that you see a team lead from start to finish without any lead changes or ties.

                “When I look down at the stats and it says zero lead changes, I like that,” he said. “Give credit to our guys, they came out with a good focus. We were really in attack mode early on. There were a couple times in the game we allowed them to claw back, maybe late when we were sitting the ball a little bit too much. But, from start to finish, I am pretty pleased with the game.”

                WNCC bolted to a quick 10-0 lead behind six points from Marko Kovacevic. Otero, however, came storming back to slice the lead to two points on two occasions, including 14-12 on a Lathan Lieb bucket. The Cougars then went on an 8-0 run behind a 3-pointer by Raul Delgado. WNCC led 26-14 late in the first half before Otero went on an 8-0 run to trail at halftime 26-22.

                The second half was a battle as Otero sliced the lead to two points at 36-34. That was when the Cougars shifted gears and started to put on a dunking exhibition that was started by dunk by Du’Vaughn Maxwell to put WNCC up 45-36.

                The highlight real continued as Maxwell and Delgado electrified the crowd. It all started with Maxwell bringing the ball up the court with a behind the back dribble and then as he was driving to the hole, he sent a behind the back pass to Delgado for the bucket and foul. The play sent the crowd and the Cougar bench in a frenzy. WNCC later pushed the lead to 62-47 on back-to-back Sebastian Suarez 3-pointers.

                Otero didn’t quit as they cut the lead to 69-63 on a Brandon Harris 3-pointer with 1:15 to play. That was as close as they would get as  Mike Peltz hit two free throws with 21.1 seconds left and then Delgado slammed home a dunk late for the 75-65 win.

                Beck said that that razzle-dazzle play helped energize a good crowd that was on hand on the night.

                “The crowd has gotten better and better and better as the year as got along and we want to tell the crowd thank you and continue to support us,” Beck said. “We feel we have a good bunch that can put on a show at times. As our defense gets better, we will be able to get it out on the fast break offense.”

                WNCC had four players finish in double figures, led by Delgado with 17 points, including going 8 of 11 from the free throw line. Kovacevic finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Suarez ahd 11 points and Mason Smith netting 10 points.

                Terrance Motley finished the contest with 10 rebounds and three blocks, while Peltz had seven rebounds and four assists.

Otero (14-1)                       22 43 – 65

WNCC (13-3)                      26 49 – 75

OTERO JUNIOR COLLEGE

Perryonte Smith 8, Wes McKenzie 16, Lucas Archuleta 3, Brandon Harris 20, Dylan Fritsch 3, Lathan Lieb 2, Adam Link 4, Oscar Garcia 3, Chris Strong 6.

WESTERN NEBRASKA

Tahir Little 2, Mike Peltz 4, Du-Vaughn Maxwell 9, Mason Smith 10, Raul Delgado 17, Sebastian Suarez 11, Marko Kovacevic 14, Terrance Motley 8.

WNCC women fall by two to No. 17 Otero

                 The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team fought tooth and nail against the No. 17 Otero Junior College Rattlers, fighting back from 18-point second half deficit to narrowly fall 57-55 in a contest that saw both teams battle strong defensively.

                WNCC, which trailed 43-25 at one time in the second half, went on a 17-0 run to close to 43-42. WNCC kept playing strong in the waning moments taking their first lead since midway in the first half at 54-53 on a Samantha Sanders 3-pointer with 1:42 left.

                WNCC coach Dave Harnish was proud of the way his team played in the second half as they easily could have gave up trailing by nearly 20 points to the unbeaten Rattlers.

                “For one we were depleted and I thought we played well to start the game and then the last six minutes of the first half we had a defensive lapse. The big difference in the game was turnovers, where we turned the ball over 12 times in the first half and only four times the second half,” he said. “I thought we were very good in the half court the second half. We got some rhythm going and we got solid on defense. We came back and had a chance to win the game. It is hard to talk to the girls after the game because we played so hard and got back into it. We are proud of the way they fought back.”

                In fact, the Cougar women played tough for the entire game with a depleted bench because of injuries. WNCC held a 12-6 lead early on a Jessica Aratani bucket before the Rattlers went on an 8-0 run to lead 14-12. Otero pushed the lead to 25-14 before taking a 30-19 lead into the locker room.

                Otero came out in the second half red hot, starting out with a 13-6 run that saw the No. 17 team in the nation lead 43=25 with 13 minutes left. WNCC, instead of folding, applied the defensive pressure and went on a 17-0 run that spanned nearly six minutes to cut the deficit to one, 43-42. Otero finally stopped the run with a free throw and then pushed the lead to 48-42.

                It was short-lived, though, as the Cougars went on a 12-5 run that was spearheaded by nine points from Samantha Sanders. Sanders nailed a 3-pointer with 3:40 to play to knot the score at 51-51. A couple minutes later, the sophomore from Denver drained a trey from the top of the key to give the Cougars the 54-53 lead. Otero’s Aubry Boehme put the Rattlers ahead for good with a bucket with under a minute to play for the win.

                Harnish said the second half run they made was because his team switched to a zone defense.

                “We went from a man-to-man to zone and they seemed to have problems against the zone and weren’t knocking some shots down,” he said. “I thought we just executed better offensively and took the right shots, drew some fouls and got tougher as the game went along.”

                Neither team shot the ball well. WNCC was 36 percent from the field and 25 percent (3 of 12) from the 3-point area. WNCC’s defense also stifled Otero to just 39 percent shooting including a 5 of 25 shooting from beyond the arc. WNCC stayed in the contest from the free throw line where they were 20 of 28, while Otero was 10 of 16.

                WNCC was led in scoring by Sanders with 12 points and four assists. Aratani finished with nine points and 10 rebounds, while Lisa Durden had nine points as well.

                WNCC will be back in action Saturday afternoon when they host Trinidad State Junior College in another subregion contest. Tip-off is slated for 1 p.m.

               

Otero (16-0)                       30 27 – 57

WNCC (13-4)                      19 36 – 55

OTERO JUNIOR COLLEGE

Ellie Carter 3, Taylor Rock 11, Iiaisaane Lo’amanu 5, Erin Foster 3, Tonje Milde 8, Fernanda Mensilla 8, Sarah Pigg 7, Aubry Boehme 12.

WESTERN NEBRASKA
Samantha Sanders 12, Leona Garrett 5, Lisa Durden 9, ChaCha Ofoegbu 8, Idil Ozbayrak 4, Kelsey Doddridge 8, Jessica Aratani 9.