Beatrice – The No. 3 North Platte Community College men’s basketball team’s (15-1, 6-1 South Sub-Region, 1-0 NCCAC) Ethan Montalvo put on a show Friday night in Beatrice as he scored 40 points to lead the Knights to a 83-68 victory over the Southeast Community College Storm (16-6, 0-2 NCCAC).

North Platte Community College, Southeast Community College, Central Community College and McCook Community College make up the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference (NCCAC). The four schools play home and home this season, so today and tomorrow’s games count towards the conference championship for the Knights. Southeast fell at home to McCook 94-84 while Central defended their home court by knocking off McCook 96-92.

Montalvo started scoring early and often as he helped the Knights get off to an early 27-7 lead. The Storm would not go quietly and with a raucous crowd fought back to trail 41-35 at intermission behind several run out baskets. Montalvo scored 23 points in the first half to keep the Knights in the lead.

In the second half, the Storm continued to play hard but could never get over the hump to take a lead. Every time the Storm would cut the score to a one possession game the Knights would answer. Sophomore Tim Simmons hit two huge 3-pointers late in the game to hold off the Storm.

The 40 points scored by Montalvo is a career-high at North Platte that came on 14-21 shooting from the field, 6-10 from behind the 3-point line and 6-7 from the free throw line to go along with six rebounds, five steals and two assists.

“That was the first time I ever scored 40,” said Montalvo. “My teammates did a great job putting me in position to score and having confidence in me to make shots.”

Cameron Williams was also in double figures as he finished with 14 points and Tim Simmons finished 12. Aireon Porter had seven rebounds to lead the Knights while Akau Deng had six. Josh Roberts led the Storm with 17 points, but only three in the second half.

“Ethan put on a show tonight,” said assistant coach Nathan Wieseler. “The most impressive thing was that he scored every way you could, from behind the 3 point line, midrange jump shots, getting to the basket and from the free throw line. A short turnaround now as we have another big game tomorrow afternoon at Columbus.”

The Knights return to action Saturday as they travel to face the Central Community College Raiders (14-3, 1-0 NCCAC) at 3 p.m. The Knights have two more road games next week before returning home Wednesday January 29 to face the McCook Community College Indians (12-4, 3-2 South Sub-Region, 1-1 NCCAC) at 7:30 p.m.