SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. - It is starting to sound Déjà vu as the Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball dropped another contest in the final seconds Monday night. Dawson Community College hit a bucket with 12.7 seconds remaining for the 83-80 win.

WNCC did everything imaginable to win the game. After trailing 49-41, the Cougars played a decent second half, outscoring Dawson 39-34 and fought back from a 14-point deficit to 73-72 late. Down the stretch, Dawson just made shots when they needed to.

Xavier Kirkpatrick, who led the team with 22 points and four 3-pointers, said there were things they could have done better, but they didn’t play awful.

“We played decent and there definitely were some things that we could have worked out as far as like getting a rebound and just boxing out, finishing our plays,” Kirkpatrick said. “But, overall, we played great as a team.”

The big thing is the Cougars were down big several times and each time they came back and the last 10 minutes of the game was a back-and-forth contest. That showed a lot of never-giving-up attitudes in the team.

“We it play by play and we top it down by getting layups,” he said. “No big plays. It is just important that we top it down by just playing defense and just getting layups.”

These close games that resulted in losses on Saturday and Monday can only make the team better and getting a win in a close contest is what the team needs right now. They will have little time to rest as they come right back at it on Wednesday when they host Lamar Community College in a women’s and men’s South Sub-region doubleheader. Kirkpatrick said they just have to come to practice on Tuesday and work to get ready for Wednesday.

“We just gotta come ready to go and practice tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said. “We just have to move on to the next game.”

The game was actually a competitive game from start to finish. WNCC raced to a 9-5 lead and led 17-14 on a Dorin Nguema bucket. That is when Dawson made a run, going on an 8-0 run to take a 22-17 lead and led 34-25. Dawson later led 42-30 when Kirkpatrick got hot, scoring the next five points to make it 42-35. Dawson went up 48-38 and led 49-41 at intermission.

The second half saw Dawson score the first five points and led 54-41. The Bucs led 60-52 when WNCC got hot, tying the contest at 60-60 on a Kirkpatrick triple with 13:52 to play. Dawson went back in front at 67-62, but Kirkpatrick nailed five points to tie the score at 67.

WNCC took the lead at 70-67 on a Kellon Harris 3-pointer with 9:10 to play. Dawson responded with a 9-3 run to lead 76-73 and later 78-75. WNCC made it a 78-77 game as Viktor Lukic-Gavric got a dunk. It was short-lived as Dawson went up 81-77 with just under two minutes to play. WNCC missed two free throws with 1:35 to play and then made it an 81-80 game when Kirkpatrick hit an old-fashioned 3-point play with 1:12 left in the game.

Neither team scored again until Dawson hit a bucket with 12.7 seconds to play. WNCC had one last chance, but a good 3-point look just came up short and Dawson got the rebound and ran out the clock on a fast break instead of trying to score an easy lay-up.

WNCC shot 44 percent for the contest and buried 15 3-pointers. Dawson shot 44 percent and made nine triples. The difference in the game was free throw shooting where Dawson was 14-of-19 while WNCC was 7-of-11.

WNCC had four players in double figures, led by Kirkpatrick with 22 points. Lukic-Gavric added 14 points while burying four 3-pointers. Isaiah St. Preux chipped in 12 points while Toms Linis had 10 points.

Dorin Nguema led the team in rebounding with 11 boards. Nguema also had five assists and five steals.

Dawson (13-6) 49 34 – 83
WNCC (4-13) 41 39 – 80

DAWSON
Kai Guess 21, Brandon Hymes 15, Mikey Ngoyi 12, Adesoye Oraleye 9, Sharif Yakubu 5, Zakai Owens 5, Matthew Kinzeler 4, Aries Lewis 4, Michael Murphy 3, Delray Lilley 3, Kuirwohl Chol 2.

WNCC
Xavier Kirkpatrick 22, Viktor Lukic-Gavric 14, Isaiah St. Preux 12, Toms Linis 10, Noah Jones 9, Melchi Egbeyemi 6, Kellon Harris 5, Dorin Nguema 2.