SCOTTSBLUFF -  Charisma Johnson and Ella Chesta-Carty combined for 42 points and the Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team remained perfect in the South Sub-region with an 82-65 win over Southeast Community College on Saturday.
The Cougars opened up a tight game with strong second and third quarters to forge to the win.
WNCC head coach Ryan Davis said his team played well in the win.
“I thought we played really well,” Davis said. “I told them that last quarter, you can kind of throw some of that away because, through my coaching career, when you’re up that much, it’s a little bit hard to stay locked in and tend to let things slip away when you know the game is in hand. So, I think for three quarters and then another quarter of the last one, we were very locked in. We executed everything really well.”
A big key was the teams shooting, especially in the first half where they team buried all seven of their 3-pointers.
“(The first half was probably well played) and really, the second half, too. We started going away from plays that would give us a three,” Davis said. “We kind of found a weakness of theirs. One of their guards couldn’t really guard Charisma, so we kept going at her and took away some of those three opportunities. But, when you get a 20-point lead going into the half, it’s really big. We obviously had Juseana hit a three, Zo hit three 3s, and Ella hit three 3s in the first half and that’s just going to bury people.”
WNCC put four players in double figures in the win. Johnson led the way with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting along with seven rebounds followed by Chesta-Carty with 20 points and three threes and eight rounds. Zozefine Sipolina had 15 points, three 3-pointers, and eight rebounds, while Aniaya Burton-Hernandez had 12 points.
“We had four people in double figures and then out of those four, I think they probably shot close to or over 50 percent,” Davis said. “So very efficient. We were at on two games in a row where above one point per possession, which is excellent. I think that if we keep doing that and sharing the ball and then we kind of pick apart certain matchups that we can exploit, then it might be one person one day, it might be another on a different day because of the match-ups problems.”
The first quarter of Saturday’s contest was actually a contest. WNCC jumped to an 8-2 lead after 3-pointers by Sipolina and Chesta-Carty. Southeast came back with a 9-0 run to take an 11-8 lead. WNCC tied it with a Sipolina triple, but the Bobcats went ahead 14-11 with a three of their own and went ahead 15-13. WNCC came back when Chesta-Carty hit a three and Burton-Hernandez had a bucket for an 18-16 lead.
Southeast tied it at 18-18, but WNCC scored the final four points of the quarter for a 22-18 lead.
WNCC opened the second quarter with a 12-4 run that included a triple from Chesta-Carty and an old-fashioned 3-point play by Johnson. The play of the quarter, though, came from Sipolina as she missed a 3-pointer but immediately hustled after the miss, got the rebound and put the ball back in the hope for a bucket for a 10-point lead at 32-22.
WNCC kept executing as they went on a 11-2 run to lead 43-24 on a Chesta-Carty 3-pointer. WNCC led at halftime 48-28 on a Juseana-Rae Delatori 3-pointer as they outscored the bobcats 26-10 in the frame.
The second half saw WNCC build a 25-point lead at 60-35 and led 63-39 at the end of the quarter on a Johnson old-fashioned 3-point play.
WNCC opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run that saw Burton-Hernandez score the first six points and then Chesta-Carty drove the lane for another two points and a 71-39 lead. After that, the Cougars were outscored 26-11 but never were threatened.
WNCC, 13-6 overall and 3-0 in the conference, will be on the road next weekend for a pair of conference games at Trinidad State College on Friday and then Otero College on Saturday. Then, on Wednesday, January 28, the Cougars will travel to face McCook Community College. McCook is tied with the Cougars at 3-0 in the conference right now.

Southeast 18 10 11 26 – 65
WNCC (13-6) 22 26 15 19 – 82
SOUTHEAST
Jasmine McKenzie 16, Makayla Lemelle 14, Aleviah Anderson 9, Tatym Dempcy 9, Brooklyn Pierce 8, Kyra Wooden 5, Aleziah Anderson 2, Jada Jackson 2.
WNCC
Charisma Johnson 22, Ella Chesta-Carty 20, Zozefine Sipolina 15, Veralyn Aviles 6, Juseana-Rae Delatori 5, Celina Donyo 2.

WNCC men fall to Southeast in sub-region contest

The Western Nebraska Community College and Southeast Community College men’s basketball team battled tooth and nail with neither team getting a lead more than five points all night.
In the end, the Southeast Bobcats made clutch buckets in the final minute and then held on to earn the 87-84 win over the Cougars Saturday afternoon.
In the four home games to open the second semester, the Cougars lost all four by a combined 10 points. WNCC will look to get back on the winning track when they hit the road for a pair of games at Trinidad State College on Friday and Otero College on Thursday. Trinidad State is 0-2 in the sub-region and 7-10 overall and Otero is also 0-2 and 1-15 overall.
Saturday’s contest was a game where the Cougars couldn’t have played any harder as they kept pace with the Bobcats. The two squads had 11 ties and 16 lead changes in the contest between the two evenly matched teams.
The two squads were knotted at 27-27 early and that was when WNCC went on a 6-0 run to take their biggest lead at 33-27 and later led 38-32 on a Kellon Harris old-fashioned 3-point play. Southeast cut the Cougar lead to 39-37 but Melchi Egbeyemi hit two 3-pointers to close the half to give the Cougars the 45-40 halftime lead.
WNCC opened the second half and led 47-42 as Harris hammered down an alley-oop dunk. It was then that the Bobcats went on an 11-2 run to grab a 53-49 lead. The two squads kept trading buckets, and the Cougars finally took the lead at 64-63 on a Harris 3-pointer and then an Isaiah St. Preux bucket with 8:50 to play.
That was when things got interesting that kept the fans on the edge of their seats. Southeast had an 80-75 lead with 4:10 to play. WNCC knotted the score at 80-80 on five points from Harris. WNCC had an 84-83 lead on a Toms Linis bucket with 1:38 to play. Southeast’s Arthur DeSilva Lima Videira got a dunk with 52.5 seconds left for an 85-84 lead. WNCC had plenty of opportunities to take the lead but turned the ball over with around 45 seconds to play. Southeast hit two free throws with 26.9 seconds left for a 3-point lead. The Cougars had a chance to tie the game and force overtime, but two attempts at a 3-point shot didn’t go and a third attempt didn’t get off when the final buzzer rang.
WNCC shot 46 percent from the field and buried 11-of-35 3-pointers. Southeast was 50 percent from the field and made 8-of-17 3-pointers.
WNCC had balanced scoring as five players finished with double figures. Harris led the Cougars with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. The Scottsbluff High graduate also had two 3-pointers. Linis and Egbeyemi each had 13 points while Noah Jones, Amare Jackson, and Viktor Lukic-Gavric each had 11 points.

Southeast 40 47 – 87
WNCC 45 39 – 84
SOUTHEAST
PJ Newbill 21, Marquis Tolliver 18, Carson Forsey 18, Arthur Videira 8, Jamar’i Franklin 8, Brandon Shoop 6, Lachlin Curtin 4, Chang Deng 2, Babul Choal 2.
WNCC
Kellon Harris 19, Toms Linis 13, Melchi Egbeyemi 13, Noah Jones 11, Viktor Lukic-Gavric 11, Amare Jackson 11, Isaiah St. Preux 5, Xavier Kirkpatrick 1.