Carter Brown scored 19 points and WNCC had three players in double figures, but it wasn't enough on this 2's-day as the Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team fell to North Platte Community College 75-67 in the last regular season game at Cougar Palace.

                WNCC will now travel in a first-round playoff game this weekend. The seedings and opponents for the first-round will be released later this week.

                Tuesday was also sophomore recognition for the seven academic sophomores and Brown was one of them along with Jasiya DeOllos, Agwa Nywesh, Turumbil Zaki, Them Koang, Michael Bradley, and Sayo Owolabi.

                But, for now, the season isn't over yet with the playoff game. It seems they will either travel to Trinidad or Lamar for the first-round game and both are teams the Cougars have beaten.

                Tuesday's game was a tale of two different halves. The first half was a defensive contest with both teams going back and forth. WNCC started with a 10-4 lead behind 3-pointers by Brown and Nywesh. North Platte came back to tie the game at 12-12 with 13:40 to play and took their first lead at 16-14 with 12:13 to play on a bucket by Jevarrick Butler.

                WNCC regained the lead momentarily at 31-30 on back-to-back buckets by Brown, including a 3-pointer with 1:26 to play in the half. Butler hit two free throws for North Platte to put the Knights back in front. That was short-lived as Koang had two free throws for WNCC to put the Cougars up 33-32. North Platte hit a bucket with a second left in the half to lead 34-33 at halftime.

                The second half saw North Platte score the first six points for a 40-33 lead and the Cougars couldn't buy a bucket even though the shots were good looks. Finally, Koang got a shot to go to cut the lead to 40-35 and the Cougars went on a 6-0 run to slice the deficit to a single point at 40-39.

                North Platte reloaded with a 6-0 run for a 46-39 lead and led by 13 later on at 57-44. The Knights kept making plays and led 64-48 before the Cougars went on a 10-0 run behind a dunk by Koang and five points from Rodney Sawyer to cut the deficit to 64-58.

                North Platte went back in front 72-60 with 2:03 to play but the Cougars continued to fight, cutting the deficit to five points behind five points from Brown and a bucket by Biko Johnson to trail 72-67. North Platte then made key free throws down the stretch for the win.

                WNCC shot 46 percent from the field and connected on 5-of-20 3-point shots. North Platte shot 52 percent from the field and did not hit a 3-pointer in six attempts. The difference in the game was free throw shooting where North Platte was 23-of-31 while WNCC was 12-of-17.

                The Cougars had three players in doubled figures. Brown, an Ogallala graduate, led all scorers with his 19 points including three 3-pointers. Koang tallied 17 points followed by Sawyer with 16.

North Platte       34 41 – 75

WNCC                   33 34 – 67

NORTH PLATTE
Nolan Sughroue 6, Trevon Dennis 12, Caleb Horne 1, Jevarrick Butler 16, Nico Felici 16, German Plotnikov 6, Danilo Matovic 12, Timur Krupalija 6.

WNCC

Carter Brown 19, Rodney Sawyer 16, Jasiya DeOllos 2, Biko Johnson 6, Agwa Nywesh 5, Turumbil Zaki 2, Them Koang 17.