The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball used a balanced scoring in capturing their 12th win of the season with a 101-80 win over Lamar Community College Tuesday evening at Cougar Palace.
All eight Cougars that saw action scored with five scoring in double figures. Teddy Allen led WNCC with 24 points. Allen tallied a double-double, finishing with 12 rebounds.
WNCC head coach Cory Fehringer said tonight they had balanced scoring and they won the rebounding battle, which was huge.
“Teams have been shooting really well against us and we are not very deep right now with a lot of bodies so we have to choose who we are going to take away,” he said. “Tonight, we tried to limit paint touches and rebounding and we were plus five on the glass. We are going to give up threes. Other team’s mentality is they want to get a win over Western Nebraska. Kids come in here with a lot of confidence.”
Lamar did come in hot from behind the arc, shooting 56 percent (15 of 27) while WNCC was just 30 percent (6 of 20) from the long range stripe. The difference was the Cougars shooting inside the arc, where they were 67 percent and they were also 77 percent from the charity stripe. Lamar was 45 percent from the field and just 64 percent from the charity stripe.
WNCC won the rebounding battle 38-33 and they also won the dunk battle, hammering home nine dunks on the night.
WNCC trailed just once in the contest at 3-2. The Cougars then went on a 9-0 run behind five points from Kalen Williams and a rim-jarring dunk by Kenny Strawbridge for an 11-3 lead. Lamar came back to tie the game at 19, but Williams buried a trey and then Tayler Johnson had a steal and dunk for a 24-19 lead.
Lamar sliced the lead to two points, 26-24, but WNCC went on an 8-0 run to go up 34-24 and rolled to the 47-38 halftime lead.
Lamar cut the lead to five points early in the second half at 49-44, but WNCC went on a 21-7 run behind back-to-back dunks from Jarred Rosser and Elie Cadet, and back-to-back treys from Jordan Smith and Teddy Allen for a 70-51 lead.
Lamar went on a mini 9-0 run to cut the lead to 75-64, but WNCC went on a 13-2 run that saw six straight points from Allen to hold an 88-66 lead.
Besides Allen, Strawbridge finished with 21 points while Rosser had 15 points. Williams and Cadet each tallied 23 points, while Johnson was one point shy of double figures with nine points. Smith finished with five points, while Conner McCracken banked in a three at the shot-clock buzzer for his three points.
WNCC, 12-7 overall and 2-2 in sub-region play, will be back in action next Tuesday when they face Trinidad State Junior College before hosting 10th ranked Otero Junior College on Friday, Jan. 31.
Lamar 38 42 – 80
WNCC 47 54 – 101
WNCC
Jarred Rosser 15, Conner McCracken 3, Tayler Johnson 9, Jordan Smith 5, Kalen Williams 12, Kenny Strawbridge 21, Elie Cadet 12, Teddy Allen 24.
LAMAR
Jordan Wilson 16, Blayton Williams 20, Veron Kalonji 1, Oscar Maldonado 14, D’Andre Barrett 13, Peter Turay 16.
