Helton's shooting helps WNCC sink NJC

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By MARK REIN
For the Star-Herald (as appeared in the Jan. 15 Star-Herald)

Western Nebraska Community College’s Tony Helton put on a shooting exhibition Wednesday night at Cougar Palace. The 6-foot-3 guard scored 27 points to power the Cougars to a 71-57 win over Northeastern Junior College. The win was the Cougars’ 14th straight and pushed their season record to 15-2.

"Tony stepped up and played great tonight," WNCC coach Trace Bevell said. "He hit the open shots. He was 9 of 14 (from the field) and 5 of 8 (from 3-point range). Every shot he had to make, he made it. Right now he is a go-to guy. He is a chemistry guy. Right now he is playing the best for us and he has done that for us all year. He gets the big steal, the big rebound, and the big shot. If he can keep doing that, then teams have to guard him, which will get other guys open shots."

WNCC needed Helton’s red-hot play as the other three guards — Golden Corner, Ryan Thompson and Brandon Key — had an off night. Those three were 7 of 23 from the field and only Thompson scored in double figures with 12 points.
WNCC’s overall shooting concerned Bevell. The Cougars shot 46 percent overall, but were just 40 percent from the field in the first half. The Cougars shot 53 percent from the free-throw line for the game.

"We didn’t shoot the ball well again tonight," he said. "I didn’t like our shot selection at times. We shot the ball too quickly. We could have pounded it inside and JP could have exploded and we didn’t do that. Our guards kept wanting to shoot the ball. We were selfish at times."

True, the Cougars had plenty of opportunities to bury the Plainsmen. WNCC played near flawless ball in the first 15 minutes of the first half. After NJC jumped out to a 5-0 lead, the Cougars went on an 18-0 run that was spearheaded by back-to-back 3-pointers by Corner and Key — their only field goals of the game.

The Cougars also pounded the ball inside as J.P. Batista collected back-to-back buckets and then Helton started to show his shooting skills with back-to-back 3-pointers. NJC finally stopped the run with a bucket by Dennis Howard with 10:30 to play, but WNCC continued to heat up as Helton nailed a bucket to put the Cougars up 22-7 with about eight minutes to play.

The Plainsmen came storming back as they cut the deficit to 30-25 at halftime. Bevell said NJC should never have come back.

"We were up by 15 (early), but we still haven’t learned to close an opponent out yet. We don’t have that killer instinct," he said. "There were numerous times tonight we could have put them away and put them away, but they kept battling back. I give them the props for that. They (NJC) didn’t give up. They kept battling and didn’t allow us to put them away."

NJC cut the deficit to four points at 45-41 with 9:23 to play. Dustin Pfeifer hit a trey, but Helton came back immediately and drilled his fourth 3-pointer of the game. Howard answered with an old-fashioned three-point play to cut the deficit once again to four. But Thompson had an answer to Howard’s play with an old-fashioned three-point play himself.

WNCC finally sealed the win in the final three minutes as Helton drilled a 3-pointer with 2:50 to play to put them up 62-49. He then had six of the final nine points for the win. WNCC will next be in action Saturday when the men travel to Casper College. The Cougars hope to push their winning streak to 15 games, which would tie for third-best in school history.

Bevell knows that Casper will not be an easy game. "We have four tough games in a row now and the most important game is at Casper for us," he said. "We just need to go up there and play and get a win."

WNCC 71, NJC 57
NJC 25 32 — 57
WNCC 30 41 — 71
NORTHEASTERN COLORADO
Dustin Pfeifer 8, Collins Ferris 4, Shawn Moore 7, Anthony Fuller 15, Dennis Howard 5, John Degroat 8, Derek Wabbington 10.
WESTERN NEBRASKA
RaShaun Broadus 2, Golden Corner 3, Ryan Thompson 12, Brandon Key 5, Tony Helton 27, Rodrigo Segantim 2, Brad Ryan 4, J.P. Batista 16.
Three-pointers: WNCC 8 (Helton 5, Corner, THompson, Key); NJC 4 (Pfeifer 2, Moore, Degroat).