North Platte —  The North Platte Community College Knights basketball team narrowly escaped their home court with a 78-77 win over the Eastern Wyoming College Lancers on Friday night.

The game started rough for the Knights when the Lancers scored a quick eight points to take the early lead.  Knights head coach Kevin O’Connor took out all the starters to see if they could get things going.  The subs were able to tie the score at 10 with 15 minutes to go in the first half. The Knights continued their run to take their largest lead of the first half at 27-17.

The Knights held a 38-32 lead at halftime.

In the second half, the Knights built their lead to 11 at 64-53.  The Lancers came back and took the lead on a three pointer by Grant Olsson at 73-71.  The Knights Jordan Mills hit a three-pointer to take the lead back, but on the next trip down, Cedric Collinge hit another three to take the lead back for the Lancers at 76-75.

After a Dashawn Benson basket, Diontae Champion made a field goal to tie the score at 77.  Champion hit the game winning free throw with 20 seconds to go.

The Knights improve to 14-9 on the season and 6-5 in South Sub-Region play.  Tyree Peter led the Knights with 19 points and 13 rebounds.  Champion and Mills each tallied 16 points and Tim Wagner added 11 points.

The Lancers dropped to 7-18 on the season and 1-11 in the sub-region.  Chris Oseitutu led the Lancers with 19 points.  Olsson added 16.  Benson had 14 points.  Peter Sloknic finished with 13 points and Collinge added 10 points.