LAMAR, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team dropped a South Sub-region contest to Lamar Community College 99-91 in a contest that saw a total of 49 fouls and a Runnin' Lopes team that was 31-of-41 from the free throw line.
WNCC was just 16-of-27 from the charity stripe and buried just five 3-pointers.
Despite the lop-sided free throws, the Cougars stayed tough and battled their way back from a 21-point deficit in the second half to trail 95-91 with a minute to play.
The loss drops the Cougars to 8-13 overall and to 3-2 in the sub-region and into second place. Lamar moves to 5-2 in the sub-region and sits atop the standings just percentage points ahead of WNCC. Three teams are tied for third at 3-3.
The Cougars will have little time to rest as they host a key sub-region contest on Monday when Northeastern Junior College comes to Cougar Palace for a women's and men's doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m. The WNCC and NJC contest was originally slated for February 7 but had to be moved to Monday because of the WTC high school basketball tournament at Cougar Palace over the weekend.
Saturday's afternoon contest in Lamar was one where the Cougars battled hard but only led a handful of times in the first half. WNCC led 3-0 to start the game and then led 25-21 on a Elijah Hollins bucket. Later, Withold Czerenkiewicz hits a bucket for a 29-25 lead. It was at that point where Lamar went on a 10-0 run to lead 35-29 and pushed the lead to 44-29. It was the tail-end of that Lamar run where WNCC had a chance to get back in the contest. Isaiah St. Preux was fouled shooting a 3-pointer but made just one of three free throws and the Lamar cameback and buried a trey and was fouled on the shot for a 4-point play.
The Cougars were out-scored 12-7 in the final two minutes of the half to trail 56-39.
Lamar opened the second half on a 12-3 run to lead 68-42. WNCC made a rally as they went on an 11-2 run to make it 70-53 on back-to-back St. Preux buckets.
Lamar went up by 16 points, 76-60 and led double-digits at 79-67 with 7:51 to play. That was when WNCC made a huge run as they cut the deficit to five points at 79-74 on a Noah Jones bucket.
Lamar led by nine at 87-78 when The Cougars went on a 7-0 run to trail by two, 87-85, on two Hollins free throws. Lamar came right back with an 8-2 run to lead 95-87 with 2:30 to play. WNCC got a bucket by Kellon Harris and then two free throws by Hollins to make it 95-91 with a minutes to play. Lamar nailed four free throws in the final 25 seconds for the win.
WNCC shot 46 percent from the field while Lamar was 42 percent. The difference was 3-point shooting where Lamar made eight triples to five for WNCC. The other was free throw shooting where Lamar made 15 more charity tosses.
Mathiang Maker had a double-double to lead the Cougars. Maker had 34 points with 14 rebounds. WNCC also got 13 points from Hollins and St. Preux, while Harris had eight points and eight rebounds.
Lamar was led by Sean Lindsey with 26 points, including going 13-of-16 from the free throw line, while Christian Payawall had 16 points and 8-of-8 from the charity stripe.
WNCC (8-13) 39 52 – 91
Lamar 56 43 – 99
WNCC
Reece Randolph 5, Kellon Harris 8, Elijah Hollins 13, Mathiang Maker 34, Elijah Burney 5, Noah Jones 2, Isaiah St. Preux 13, Dorin Nguema 4, Withold Czerenkiewicz 2, Toms Linis 5.