It was a tale of two halves for the Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team Monday night at Cougar Palace against Gillette College.
                Gillette shot 72 percent from the floor in the first half and buried nine 3-pointers as the Pronghorns led 57-35 at halftime. The second half saw a different Cougar team, outscoring Gillette 56-45 but it wasn’t enough as Gillette recorded the 102-91 win.
                WNCC got behind the eight ball early as Gillette led 17-3 early. WNCC started to come back as they cut the deficit to single digits at 17-8 on a Kellon Harris bucket and were within eight points at 36-28. Gillette cranked it up to lead 43-38 and scored the final six points of the half to lead 57-35.
                The second half saw the Cougars score 56 points and looked like a different team from the first half.
                WNCC by 28 early in the second after Gillette’s Dane Christensen nailed back-to-back threes. WNCC came back to get to within 19 at 79-60 that included five points from Reece Randolph.
                It was only a 15-point game with 3:48 to play, 88-73, when Elijah Hollins buried a 3-pointer. WNCC never could get it to within 12 points the rest of the way except the final 102-91 when Hollins buried his seventh 3-pointer of the game.
                Hollins led the Cougars with 31 points with seven threes and five rebounds.
                WNCC had four other players in double figures. Kendrick Preston tallied 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, while Mathiang Maker had 14 points with eight rebounds. Harris and Randolph each had 11 points. Randolph buried three triples while Harris had two.
                WNCC, 2-4, will be back in action Tuesday night when they travel to Rock Springs, Wyoming, to face Western Wyoming Community College. The Cougars will then hit the road over the weekend when they are at Twin Falls, Idaho, to face College of Southern Idaho on Friday and Colorado Northwestern on Saturday.
 
Gillette 102, WNCC 91
Gillette                57 45 – 102
WNCC                35 56 – 91
GILLETTE
Dane Christensen 13, Andrew Fuquay 21, Caleb Hollenbeck 18, Jefferson Neary 13, Dorell Thomas 14, Vinnie Sprading 2, Malique Moss 6, Sayed Sayed 3, Javonne Nesbit 10, James Otieno 2.
WNCC
Kellon Harris 11, Elijah Hollins 31, Mathiang Maker 14, Elijah Burney 2, Kendrick Preston 15, Noah Jones 3, Reece Randolph 11, Isaiah St. Preux 2, Witold Czerenkiewicz 2.
 
WNCC men fall to Indian Hills at nationals
 
                WICHITA, Kan. – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team had to brave the elements on Tuesday at the at the NJCAA national tournament, but the Cougars couldn’t battle back in falling to No. 7 Indian Hills Community College 2-0.
                The Cougars finish the season at 10-6-2 and it was a history-making season as the Cougars captured the Region IX title and made the sports first national tournament appearance.
                At nationals, the Cougars battled hard but fell in both their pool play contests. On Sunday, WNCC lost 3-1 to Tyler Junior College and then on Monday to Indian Hills.
                The Cougars, however, gave Monday’s contest a good try. The first half the two teams played in partly cloudy skies with strong winds. The second half saw plenty of rain combined with the fierce winds.
                The first half saw WNCC get the first shot off as Lucas Ovalle took a shot but it was blocked. Indian Hills had four shots and a couple corner kicks after that, but the Cougar defense had a brick wall up as the two teams were knotted 0-0 at halftime.
                The second half saw the weather elements deteriorate with plenty of rain with 35 or higher wind gusts going through Wichita.
                Indian Hills struck first as they scored two goals in the first six minutes of the half. The first goal came with 1:27 gone off the clock as Daniel Mulero scored. Five minutes later, Indian Hills made it 2-0 when Commni Diego Lazaro scored off an assist from Daniel Mulero.
                After that, the Cougar defense picked up its intensity and thwarted shot after shot. In the meantime, WNCC still was taking shots as well. The Cougars, who were going against the stiff wind in the second half, had a shot by Eduardo Oliveira that was saved by Indian Hills goalkeeper in the 64rd minute. Fifty seconds later, Alvaro Abeal had an excellent chance, but his shot went high.
                WNCC had a couple of other shots, but couldn’t get them in the net.
                WNCC finished with eight shots while Indian Hills had 15. Indian Hills had seven corner kicks to three for WNCC.
                WNCC goalkeeper Owen Henderson had seven saves in net.
                In other results on the second day of the tourney, Harcum topped Coastal Bend in Pool A, while Eastern Florida State beat Murray State 2-1 in Pool C. Pool D saw Arizona Western top Miami Dade 2-1.