WNCC men survive
Cougar men knock down 14 3-pointers in win

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(From the Desk of Mark Rein, Unofficial Sports Information Director)

The Western Nebraska Community College remained undefeated at Cougar Palace with an 80-74 win over North Platte Community College Tuesday night, but it didn’t come easy.

Or, in other words, it shouldn’t have been as close as the final score according to WNCC coach Trace Bevell.

"There were numerous times that we were up 14, 16 points and we didn’t get a sense of urgency. That is our biggest fear right now is that we are playing not to lose versus playing to win," Bevell said. "Tonight we held on and played hard. We didn’t do a very good job of shot selection, but we made more threes then ever before, but we missed too many easy shots. We just didn’t make our easy shots that we had."

WNCC (22-3 on the season) was red-hot from the 3-point area as they canned 14 3-pointers on the night compared to just 13 2-point shots. Tony Helton did most of the damage from the long-range with six 3-pointers with four in the first half.

In fact, it was Helton’s shooting that helped the Cougars build the 46-32 halftime lead. WNCC was in a dogfight with the Knights early in the first half. The Cougars led 27-22 with about six minutes to play. That is when the Cougars decided it was time to open it up and Helton was the sparkplug.

Helton, the 6-foot-3 sophomore from El Paso, Texas, scored the next 11 Cougar points to push the lead to 38-24. Helton drained three 3-pointers in the run with the first coming off of precision passing and ball movement.

After Helton’s scoring explosion, RaShaun Broadus lit it up the 3-point arc he connected on two more treys to push the lead to 44-27 and the Cougars went on for the 46-32 halftime lead.

Bevell said Helton played well.

"I wouldn’t say we would lose," Bevell said about if Helton wouldn’t have had his big game, "but, other guys would have just stepped up and played well. That is what I just told them in the locker room, if one guy is not playing well somebody else steps up. Tony has been playing well. He shot the ball well from the 3-point line 6-of-9. he did a good job for us. The good thing about us, if one or two guys are struggling, we have good enough players and enough players to have them picked up by someone else. We just have to get them on the same page."

Helton finished the night with 22 points, but other guys provided momentum turning lifts in the second half as well. North Platte came out of the locker room and cut the lead to 52-46 with 14:36 to play. That was wine Golden Corner converted on a field goal and Ryan Thompson nailed a 3-pointer to push the lead back to nine points.

From then on out, the game remained a seven to eight point margin until with 2:36 to play when the Knights’ Ryan Pasco nailed a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 76-72.

Helton answered back with 1:35 to play as he hammered home a slam dunk to push the lead back to six. North Platte’s Pasco cut the lead back to four points with 22 seconds to play at 78-74 to play, but WNCC hit two free throws down the stretch and Brandon Key swatted away a 3-point attempt with five seconds to play to preserve the win.

WNCC had five players in double figures led by Helton’s 22 points followed by Thompson with 15, Broadus with 11 and Batista and Segantim with 10 each.

North Platte placed three players in double figures as Donta Watson had 22 points, including five straight buckets in the second half. The Knights also got double-digit scoring from Pasco with 16 and Iija Mironenko with 12.

WNCC will next be in action Saturday when they host Western Wyoming Community College in a men’s and women’s doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m.

North Platte 32 42 – 74
WNCC 46 34 – 80

NORTH PLATTE
Corbin Biltoft 2, Seth Hamilton 2, Andre Jones 9, Jeremy Parks 9, Iija Mironenko 12, Ryan Pasco 16, Antonio Grubbs 2, Donta Watson 22.

WNCC
RaShaun Broadus 11, Golden Corner 7, Ryan Thompson 15, Brandon Key 3, Tony Helton 22, Rodrigo Segantim 10, J.P. Batista 10, Olivier Haranga 2.