McCook —The North Platte Community College Knights basketball team dropped their third straight National Junior College Athletic Association Region IX South Sub-Region contest by losing to the McCook Community College Indians 83-77 on Tuesday night.

The Knights led early 10-3 but the Indians went on a 10-2 run of their own to take a 13-12 lead with just under 15 minutes to go in the first half.  There were six lead changes in the first half with the last one being at 7:58 on a field goal by Hakim Davis to put the Indians ahead 28-27.  The Indians kept the lead for the remainder of the half, leading 44-37 at halftime.

In the second half, the Indians increased their lead to 12 51-39 for their biggest lead of the game.  The Knights never were able to regain the lead and could only get within four points when David Ramon hit a three pointer to make the score 78-74 in favor of the Indians.

The Knights are 18-12 on the season and finished 8-8 in the South Sub-Region.  They finished tied for fourth in the sub-region with Trinidad State Junior College.  Diontae Champion led the Knights in scoring with 26 points.  Tim Wagner finished with 14 points.  Ramon and Mike Amius each finished with 12 points.  Tyree Peter led the Knights with eight rebounds.

The Indians finished the regular season at 20-10, but 7-9 in the sub-region, which is in a tie for sixth with Western Nebraska and Northeastern Junior College.

The Indians were led by Evan Drake with 16 points. Lewis Diankulu and Brandon Goldsmith each had 12 points.  Davis added 11 points.

The official pairings for the upcoming Region IX South Sub-Region first round games have not been released.  Otero Junior College is seeded first and will play the eighth seed.  Lamar Community College finished second with a 10-6 record and will play the seventh seed.  Laramie County Community College is 9-7 and will play the sixth seed.  The sixth, seventh and eighth seed will be between Western Nebraska Community College, Northeastern Junior College and McCook Community College.  The fourth and fifth seed will play each other and they are North Platte and Trinidad.  It has not been determined where that game will be played.

The first round games will be played Saturday, February 27 at the site of the higher seed.