Photo: Ella Chesta-Carty goes up for a lay-up in the first half of their game with LCCC on Saturday. (photo courtesy of Nicole Messman).

                The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team saw their season come to an end as Laramie County Community College came into Cougar Palace and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 73-59 win over the Cougar women Saturday afternoon.

                WNCC finishes the year 20-11 while LCCC moves on in the tournament that will be held March 12-14 in Rock Springs, Wyo.

                Saturday’s contest saw Laramie County shoot 52 percent from the field and bury five 3-pointers while the Cougars were just 37 percent and made just three treys. The big difference in the contest was LCCC had 31 defensive rebounds and controlled the boards 40-30 over the Cougars.

                WNCC head coach Ryan Davis said it wasn’t one of their best games and he was left speechless after the game of what really happened.

                “They had 31 defensive rebounds and it was one of our lowest rebounding totals of the year. I think the College of Southern Idaho game was up there at Gillette, which it tells you what mindset we were in,” he said. Our turnovers was one of the worst of the year and I thought we over-dribbled and we didn’t move the ball.”

                Davis was honest and really don’t know what happened to his team in the game, especially when the Cougars went up 36-31 to start the third and then let LCCC go on a 10-0 run to go up 41-36 and never took the lead again.

                “I am being honest with you and I am a little bit speechless on why that happened (in that third quarter),” he said. “We went from a 95 percent energy down to 20 percent and you can’t do that in any game at any time because somebody’s going to put a run on you.”

                There will be lots of unanswered questions of what really happened, but the Cougar were staying with LCCC for the most part. It was those little runs, however, that turned the tide.

                WNCC built a 13-6 lead in the first quarter and then watched LCCC tie the game at 13-13 at the end of the opening quarter. LCCC opened the second quarter grabbing a 22-14 lead with 6:43 to play and later led 27-19. WNCC came together and went on a 11-4 run to trail 31-30 at halftime.

                The second half the Cougars came out fired up as they score six straight points all from Charisma Johnson to take a 36-31 lead. LCCC charged back with a 10-0 run for a 41-30 lead. WNCC trailed after three 50-44.

                LCCC opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run to lead 56-44, but the Cougars came back to make it 56-48 after a Zozefine Sipolina 3-pointer. WNCC couldn’t get any closer than eight points the rest of the way to fall.

                WNCC was led by Johnson with 18 points followed by Ella Chesta-Carty with 11 points. Sipolina had nine while Celena Donyo had eight.

                LCCC was led by Sabela Carro with 23 points to match her uniform number while Nuria Florensa had 14, and Selenay Tanik had 13.

                The other scores this weekend in first-round games saw Central Wyoming defeating North Platte 71-58, McCook over Casper 63-62, Northwest over Northeastern JC 88-57, Gillette topping Southeast 90-72, and Eastern Wyoming over Otero 55-53.

                The quarterfinal match-ups for March 12 will pit Eastern Wyoming and Northwest at 12:30 p.m., Central Wyoming and Lamar at 2:30 p.m., Gillette and LCCC at 5 p.m., and McCook against Western Wyoming at 7 p.m. The semi-finals are Friday and the championship on Saturday.

LCCC                  13 18 19 23 – 73

WNCC                13 17 14 15 – 59

LCCC

Sabela Carro 23, Nuria Florensa 14, Selenay Tanik 13, Julia Sanz Bonet 9, Helena Salazar Meinesz 7, Irelynd Barnes 3, Alicia Trujillo 2, Giorielle Mukeba 2.

WNCC

Charisma Johnson 18, Ella Chesta-Carty 11, Zozefine Sipolina 9, Celina Donyo 8, Veralyn Aviles 6, Juseana-Rae Delatori 5, Brynn Sybrant 2.

WNCC men end season with first-round defeat to Northwest

                POWELL, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team ended their season with another hard-luck defeat to Northwest College in the first-round of the Region IX tournament in Powell, Wyoming, Saturday afternoon falling to Northwest 85-73.

                The Cougars finish the season at 9-22 and Saturday’s defeat was characteristic of games all season where the Cougars have big leads and then go on one mini scoring slump.

                Saturday was no different.

                WNCC started strong from the start, holding an 8-2 lead after back-to-back 3-pointers from Viktor Lukic-Gavric and Toms Linis. WNCC then went on a five-minute scoring slump as the Trappers scored 18 unanswered points to take a 20-8 lead. Lukic-Gavric stopped the run with a bucket with 13:31 to play in the opening half.

                The Trapper lead ballooned to 27-10 before the Cougars found their scoring touch once again with a tip-in by Amare Jackson and a 3-point bucket by Isaiah St. Preux to make it 27-15. WNCC climbed to within single digits at 27-18 on two Melchi Egbeyemi free throws and made it a 7-point game on a Kellon Harris dunk with eight minutes to play in the opening half.

                WNCC could never get to within more than eight points of Northwest as the Trappers held a 41-32 lead at halftime.

                The second half saw Northwest open with a 14-6 run to lead 55-39. WNCC’s two buckets were 3-points from Lukic-Gavric and Xavier Kirkptrick. WNCC trailed 65-51 on a Northwest dunk. That was when WNCC made a mini-run of 8-0 to get within six.

                That run started on a St. Preux 3-pointer followed by a Noah Jones trey and capped off with two Kirkpatrick free throws. Northwest answered with six straight and led 71-59 with just over four minutes to play.

                The two teams exchanged buckets after that and Northwest advanced to the quarterfinals of the regional tournament in Sterling, Colorado, with the 85-73 win.

                WNCC shot 36 percent from the field and made 13-of-34 3-point attempts. Northwest shot 43 percent and made just 5-of-24 3-pointers. The difference was free throw shooting where the Cougars were just 16-of-25 from the line while Northwest was 32-of-39.

                The other difference in the contest was rebounding where Northwest held a 50-26 advantage.

                WNCC was led by Lukic-Gavric with 23 points while St. Preux had 16.  Noah Jones tallied nine while Kirkpatrick had eight points.

                In other first-round scores from Saturday’s action, only two North sub-region teams won. Northwest and the other was Casper, who downed Southeast Community College 87-82. The other winners Saturday were all from the South sub-region. They included Lamar over Western Wyoming 84-75, McCook over Eastern Wyoming 103-70, North Platte over Central Wyoming 78-73, and Trinidad State over Gillette 100-74.

                The quarterfinals on March 12 at Sterling, Colorado, are all set and will have Lamar taking on Casper at 1 p.m., Laramie County facing McCook at 3 p.m., Northwest meeting North Platte at 5 p.m., and Northeastern Junior College taking on Trinidad State at 7 p.m. The championship is slated for March 14 at 3 p.m.

WNCC                32 41 – 73

Northwest        41 44 – 85

WNCC

Viktor Lukic-Gavric 23, Isaiah St. Preux 16, Noah Jones 9, Xavier Kirkpatrick 8, Amare Jackson 6, Melchi Egneyemi 5, Kellon Harris 3, Toms Linis 3.

NORTHWEST

Mateo Trujillo 23, R’Zha Zha’Quire Whittle 16, Trey Rinn 12, Braydon Bradshaw 9, Tate Monroe 8, Nayel Girard 6, Logan Woolstenhulme 6, Eli Patterson 5.

WNCC softball team falls to Luna on Sunday

                The Western Nebraska Community College softball team dropped a conference doubleheader Sunday to Luna Community College despite playing strong in both games early.

                The first game saw Luna score five runs in the final three innings to claim the 11-8 win. Game two saw Luna hit two grand slams and scored nine, fourth-inning runs to claim the 17-7 win.

                The two teams will be back in action Monday for another conference doubleheader beginning at 12 noon.

                The first game saw the Cougars play well for the first five innings, scoring eight runs and holding an 8-6 lead through five innings.

                WNCC was clicking early, scoring twice in the first as Tori Travers had a double and scored on a passed ball. WNCC loaded the bases with two outs and score one as Abbey Arntsen scored on a passed ball but that was all they could get for the 2-0 lead.

                After Luna tied the game with two in the top of the third, the Cougars went back in front with three in the bottom of the third. Travers drew a lead off walk and scored on a Jasmine Castro home run. WNCC loaded the bases with just one out and the third run was forced in after Viktoria Sarkanyova walked. WNCC left the bases loaded in the frame.

                That was when Luna came back with three in the fourth to tie the game at 5-5 and then went ahead 6-5 with a single run in the fifth. WNCC answered in the bottom of the fifth with three runs. The big hit in the inning was a Castro 2-out single that scored two runs to make it 8-6.

                Luna came back to go up 9-8 with three runs in the sixth and added three more in the seventh for the 11-8 lead.

                WNCC had seven hits in the contest with Travers, Castrom and Gracie Holm each getting two hits. Castro had three RBIs, while Travers and Arntsen each scored two runs.

                WNCC started the second game strong as they held a 5-1 lead after two innings. The Cougars scored two in the first

                WNCC plated two in the first as they loaded the bases with just one out. Mia Migliaccio then got a single to rightfield to score two runs but Cougars left two in scoring position for the 2-1 lead.

                The Cougars added three more in the second to make it 5-1. Hayley Blumenschein led off with a walk and then Ellie Soper singled. Both came in to score on a Tina Horton home run.

                Luna came back with six runs in the third, scoring all six runs with two outs that included a grand slam and then a solo home run for the 7-5 lead. The Cougars tied the game with two in the bottom of the third. Gracie Holm led off by reaching on an error and scored on a Viktoria Sarkanyova single. Sarkanyova scored on a sacrifice bunt by Ellie Soper.

                The fourth inning saw Luna score nine times eight of the runs coming with two outs, including a second grand slam along with a solo home run with both home runs get caught up in the 30 mph winds and cleared the rightfield fence for the 16-7 lead. Luna added a solo home run to rightfield for the 17-7 win.

                WNCC finished with five hits as seven different batters had at least one hit. Horton and Migliaccio each had two RBIs.

Game 1

Luna                    002 313 3 – 11 13 2

WNCC                203 030 0 – 8 7 2

LP – Mia Migliaccio.

2B – Tori Travers.

HR – Jasmine Castro.

Game 2

Luna                    106 91 – 17 13 2

WNCC                232 00 – 7 5 4

LP – Gracie Holm.

HR – Tina Horton.