Cougars bring down Falcons
The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team didn’t exactly
play the cleanest game Thursday, but it rubbed off just enough rust to run past Air Force
Junior Varsity 69-44 at Cougar Palace. The victory pushed the Cougars’ season record
to 12-2 and extended their winning streak to 11 games.
WNCC returns to action tonight in the Pepsi Classic at Cougar Palace. The Cougars will
face Otero Junior College at 7:30 p.m. Lamar Community College will play the Air Force
Junior Varsity team at 5:30. WNCC coach Trace Bevell said his team showed lots of rust
coming off the holiday break.
"I was pleased with our defensive effort, but it was an ugly game," he said.
"We did not play very well. We just played well enough to win. If we are going to
keep winning games, we will need to play better. The guys know that. It is a typical first
game back from Christmas break after being rusty and not playing for a few weeks."
Air Force shot only 28 percent from the field while the Cougars shot 43 percent. The teams combined for 45 turnovers, including 19 by the Cougars. Bevell said he scheduled Thursday’s game so his team could polish off some of the rust before the Pepsi Classic, which features two scrappy teams.
"We are coming in with Otero and Lamar and both are two very good teams. They are going to be doing the same things (as we did tonight) because they haven’t played in a month or so. But that is junior college basketball. It is a tale of two seasons — first semester and second semester. We did not play well tonight. We played good enough to win, which is encouraging and good. It is good when you don’t play well and still win a game, but like I told them in the locker room, if teams are going to beat us, they (should) beat us while we are playing well and not us playing bad or poorly. We need to turn up our intensity and play better."
WNCC did play well defensively. WNCC held the Falcons to just 44 points. WNCC took a 34-21 lead into halftime and then came out in the second half and scored the first seven points on a J.P. Batista easy lay-in, a Ryan Thompson dunk and a Golden Corner 3-pointer. Air Force’s Tony George stopped the run with a bucket, but the Cougars continued to mount little runs to put away the game. The sprees included back-to-back alley-oop dunks by Brandon Key and Thompson to give the Cougars a 58-33 lead late in the second half.
Bevell said he was somewhat pleased with the Cougars’ defense. "Our defense was good because our offense struggled," he said. "They (Air Force) didn’t shoot the ball well either."
The Cougars had balanced scoring throughout as Batista led the team with 11 points followed by Tony Helton with nine and Corner, Brad Ryan and Rodrigo Segantim with eight points each. Segantim pulled down 10 rebounds, Corner dished out five assists and had three steals. Brandon Jones led Air Force with 15 points and six rebounds in 28 minutes of work.
WNCC 69, Air Force JV 44
Air Force JV 21 23 — 44
WNCC 34 35 — 69
AIR FORCE JUNIOR VARSITY
Tony George 8, Chance Larracuente 2, Lawrence Cuculic 3, John Bone 5, Kevin Calloway 2,
William Guthrie 5, James Mitchell 4, Brandon Jones 15.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
RaShaun Broadus 4, Golden Corner 8, Ryan Thompson 7, Brandon Key 65, Demarcus Foster 3,
Tony Helton 9, Brad Ryan 8, Rodrigo Segantim 8, Eric Price 2, Kano Edwards 2, J.P. Batista
11, Olivier Haranga 2.
Three-pointers: WNCC 6 (Corner 2, Thompson 1, Foster 1, Helton 1, Segantim 1); Air Force 6
(George 2, Jones 2, Bone 1, Cuculic 1).