GILLETTE, Wyo. – Rodney Sawyer and Them Koang combined for 46 points and the Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball captured their second straight in rolling to a 91-83 win over Miles Community College in the final day of the Border Wars Shootout at Gillette, Wyoming, Sunday evening.
Sawyer led all scorers with 25 points including two 3-pointers with nine rebounds. Koang finished with 21 points and seven rebounds in the Cougars ninth win of the season.
The first half was back and forth as WNCC jumped out to an 8-3 lead on Carter Brown’s second trey in the contest. Miles came cack to grab a 13-10 lead on a 3-pointer and led 20-15. WNCC ran off 10 straight on a Biko Johnson 3-pointer.
The Cougars kept the lead and pushed it to 30-23 on a Koang bucket. WNCC went up double digits at 36-25 on a Sawyer bucket and 42-31 before Miles scored the final seven points. WNCC led at halftime 42-38.
The second half was another Donnybrook as Miles sliced the lead to 47-44. Carl Thorpe nailed a 3-pointer to pus the lead to 50-44. After a Miles bucket, WNCC went on a 9-0 run that was highlighted by five points from Sawyer and back-to-back buckets by Koang for a 59-46.
The lead didn’t last as things got chippy and Miles and the Pioneers came back for a 67-66 lead. That was the Pioneers only lead of the came as Thorpe answered with a bucket and then Johnson had trey as the Cougars went in front 71-67. The Cougars continued scoring with a 13-0 run that saw Agwa Nywesh hit five points, including a trey for a 79-67 lead.
WNCC expanded the lead to 17, 90-73. Late in the game, Miles sliced the lead to single digits, 90-81, but that was the closest they could come.
WNCC shot 48 percent from the field and were 32 percent from beyond the arc (8-of-25). Sawyer, Brown, and Johnson each had two treys.
WNCC won the rebound battle 42-34. Sawyer had nine followed by Nywesh with eight, Koang with seven, and Thorpe with six.
WNCC had three in double figures. After Sawyer and Koang, Thorpe had 16 points with a trey. Brown finished with nine points along with Nywesh.
WNCC, 9-3, will be back in action on Tuesday, December 14 when they host Laramie County Community College in a doubleheader with the Cougar women. Game times are set for 6 p.m. for the women and 8 p.m. for the men.
WNCC 42 49 – 91
Miles 38 45 – 83
WNCC
Carter Brown 9, Rodney Sawyer 25, Biko Johnson 6, Agwa Nywesh 9, Them Koang 21, Dimitrie Nikolic 3, Carl Thorpe 16, Mamadou Sow 2.
MILES
Eli Habighorst 15, Denzel Kabasele 9, Ray Daniels 20, Blessing Adesipe 10, Paul Gakmar 16, Rylee Watt 1, Kaleb Naylor 12.
