Torrington, WY – The No. 5 North Platte Community College men’s basketball team (14-0, 6-0 South Sub-Region) continued their road swing on Saturday evening as they escaped Torrington, Wyo. with a victory 79-69 over the Eastern Wyoming College Lancers (8-8, 0-5 South Sub-Region).
The Knights got off to a hot start to open up an 18 point lead in the early going of the first half. The Lancers would not go quietly and battled back to allow the Knights to only take a 39-30 lead into the locker room.
The Lancers came out firing in the second half and continued their hot play to take a one point lead over the Knights with eight minutes to play. The Knights would turn up the pressure on the Lancers and use an 18-4 run to take a 13 point lead with four minutes remaining. The Knights would hold on to preserve the 10 point victory.
“I am proud of our guys for finding a way to win,” said head coach Kevin O’Connor. “Give Eastern Wyoming a ton of credit, they really played well tonight. It is good to get two road wins after such a long break over Christmas.”
The Knights were led by sophomore Ethan Montalvo who finished with a game-high 19 points. Tim Simmons (17 points), Marco Pascolo (16 points) and Cameron Williams (14 points) were also in double-figures for the Knights. Mark Hall and Jonathan Doss each had 13 points to pace the Lancers.
“Our defense really stepped up to help us win,” said Simmons. “Also we really shared the ball well and found each other in the right spots.”
North Platte starts the year with seven straight road games as next week the Knights travel to Cheyenne, Wyo. to take on Laramie County Community College (12-6, 3-2 South Sub-Region) at 8 p.m. CST, Beatrice to take on Southeast Community College (14-5) at 7:30 p.m. and Columbus to take on Central Community College (14-2) at 3 p.m. The Knights are next at home on Wednesday January 29 to face McCook Community College (11-4, 3-1 South Sub-Region) at 7:30 p.m.