LIBERAL, Kan. – For the second straight game, the Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball tam captured an overtime thriller in earning an 83-76 win over Seward County Community College in Liberal, Kansas, Saturday evening.

                The Cougars, who moved to 3-0 on the season, will play Nationwide Prep Academy in Liberal, Kansas, at noon Saturday.

                For the Cougars, they outscored the Saints 17-10 in the extra five minutes for the win.

                WNCC defeated Northwest College on Monday in overtime 87-81.

                The contest was a low-scoring game as WNCC held a 15-13 lead with 10 minutes to play in the first half. Seward County came back to grab a 19-15 lead only to watch Carl Thorpe hit a trey to put WNCC up 20-19.

                Seward came back to lead 28-22 before the Cougars ran off six straight points on bucket by Them Koang, Rodney Sawyer, and Biko Johnson to tie the game at 28-28. Seward County closed out the first half on a 12-6 run to lead 40-34 at halftime.

                Seward County opened the second half with four straight points for a 44-34 lead. WNCC came back with cut the lead to 44-41 on a trey by Carter Brown and free throws by Rodney Sawyer and Biko Johnson. Seward County hit a trey to go back up by six, 47-41.

                That was when WNCC turned it up, going on a 11-2 run to lead 52-49. The big shots were a 3-pointer by Brown and then four straight free throws by Dimitrije Nikolic. The Cougars led by five, 61-56 on Koang and Brown buckets before Seward retook the lead at 62-61 on a steal with 2:40 to play.

                WNCC retook the lead at 64-62 on a bucket by Koang. Koang put WNCC up 66-64 with 1:30 to play. Seward County tied the game on a Taye Donald bucket and had a chance to win the game at the buzzer but a 3-pointe was off the mark to force overtime.

                Seward County grabbed the early lead in the extra period with a 3-pointer before Agwa Nywesh went on a scoring tear, hitting four straight buckets. WNCC tied the game at 72-72 before Seward went back in front 74-72. Nywesh followed with a 3-pointer and then an old-fashioned 3-point play for an 78-74 lead.

                WNCC led 80-74 before Seward made a bucket to slice the lead to four, but Nywesh made one of two free throws with 19.1 seconds and then Chancelor Johnson made two free throws to seal the game with 6.7 seconds to play.

                WNCC shot 48 percent from the field but were just 4-of-18 from the 3-point arc. WNCC was 27-of-42 from the free throw line.

                Seward shot just 31 percent from the field and was 7-of-36 from the 3-point line. The Saints were 15-of-26 from the charity stripe.

                WNCC was led in scoring by Koang with 21 points. Koang also pulled down 11 rebounds and had four steals.

                The Cougars also got 16 from Nywesh, who also had eight rebounds. Brown finished with 13 points while Johnson and Sawyer each had nine.

WNCC (3-0)         34 32 17 – 83

Seward County 40 26 10 – 76

WNCC

Them Koang 21, Agwa Nywesh 16, Carter Brown 13, Rodney Sawyer 9, Biko Johnson 9, Dimitrije Nikolic 4, Carl Thorpe 5, Chancelor Johnson 2, Turumbil Zaki 4.

SEWARD COUNTY

Branton McCrary 6, Taye Donald 18, Wilson Dubinsky 8, Erik Pratt 26, Kevon Cooper 10, Jaylin Henderson 6, DeLadris Green 2.