The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team had cold shooting and the Cougars couldn't cool off North Platte Community College's hot shooting as the Knights earned at Region IX South Sub-region 108-87 win Tuesday night in the final regular season game.

                The Knights shot 60 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Cougars 49-30. WNCC shot 38 percent from the field but were just a dismal 20 percent from beyond the arc, making just six treys.

                The first half started out close as North Platte scored the first seven points before WNCC scored seven straight on a Issad Solano bucket and then a trey from Conner McCracken and then a bucket by Agwa Nywesh. North Platte went back in front 13-8 and later 24-16.

                WNCC came back to slice the lead 27-26 on a Carter Brown trey and tied the game at 39-39 on a Nywesh trey. The Knights came right back to lead 36-30 and then went up double digits at 44-32 before leading 52-37 at halftime.

                The second half saw North Platte push the lead to 76-52 and later 80-59. North Platte led 87-67 before WNCC made their patented late-game comeback with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 87-74. The Knights came back to lead 93-78 and led 99-81 and went on to win the game.

                WNCC had five in double figures. Solano led the way with 18 points followed by 16 each from Tayler Johnson and Nywesh. Chase Thompson finished with 13 while Them Koang had 11.

                Johnson, one of the sophomores that was honored before the game on sophomore recognition night, also had 10 rebounds.

                The other two sophomores recognize included Solano and Scottsbluff graduate Conner McCracken. McCracken finished with three points in the game.

                WNCC will next be in action Saturday when they compete in the first round of Region IX tournament. The Cougars will travel to face Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colorado, with the winner advancing to the regional tournament April 8-10 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

North Platte       52 56 – 108

WNCC                   37 50 – 87

NORTH PLATTE

Jason Eubank 16, Nolan Sughroue 12, Caleb Horne 4, Jevarrick Butler 24, Trevon Dennis 11, Timur Krupalija 2, German Plotnikov 18, Danilo Matovic 13, Slavomyr Marchenko 8.

WNCC

Carter Brown 3, Chase Thompson 13, Tayler Johnson 16, Tyler Mack 1, Agwa Nywesh 16, Issad Solano 18, Conner McCracken 3, Turumbil Zaki 4, Them Koang 11, Sayo Owolabi 2.