North Platte – The Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference men’s and women’s basketball teams have been announced for the 2017-18 season.

Two Lady Knights, Naria Hall and Nahatabaa Nacona, were named to the team.

Hall, a sophomore transfer student, from Wichita, Kans., averaged 14 points per game, five rebounds per game and one steal per game. Hall led the Lady Knights in scoring. She was a transfer from Colby Community College.

Nacona, a freshman from Chinle, Ariz., averaged 9.7 ppg., 4.2 rpg., 2.3 steals per game, and 2.3 assists per games. Nacona led the Lady Knights in steals and assists.

Other members of the team are: Payton Blanke, Quenshae Love, and Maddy Wolfe of Central Community College; Sam Hinkle and Aliyah Foote from McCook Community College; and Sebit Gatluak, Erika Goracke, and DeAsia Walker of Southeast Community College. Co-coaches of the year were Billy Perkins of Central Community College and Lynn Schlake of Southeast Community College.

On the men’s team, NPCC sophomore Godfrey Rolle was named the most valuable player in the NCCAC. Rolle averaged 19.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.3 assists per game, and 1.3 ppg. Rolle finished his Knights career with 931 points, which is 21st on the Knights all-time scoring list.

Joining Rolle on the first team was freshman Jakub Karwowski from Kanie, Poland. Karwowski averaged 8.9 ppg. 6.4 rpg., 1.9 blocked shots per game and had a 64.7 shooting percentage, which was 14th in the nation.

Honorable mention was sophomore Goy Lew from Omaha. Lew averaged 7.4 ppg, and 3.1 rpg.

Other NCCAC men first team members are: Malik Mooving and Latrell Talley from Central Community College; Peanut Cunningham, D’Von Moore, and Chinedu Okonkwo from McCook Community College; Kalen Hardaway, Daniel Quesenberry, and Jalen Wilkins-McCoy from Southeast Community College. The other honorable mention was Bennett Nelson from Central Community College.

NPCC Knights Coach Kevin O’Connor was named NCCAC Coach of the Year for the 18th time in his career.

North Platte – The North Platte Community College Knights basketball season came to an end on Saturday night with a defeat by the Trinidad State Junior College Trojans, 72-68 in double overtime.

Chase Grabau, Knights Assistant Basketball Coach said. “I am proud of our guys playing hard in a hostile environment.”

The Knights started the game on a 12-2 run to take the early lead. The Trojans then went on a 14-2 run on their own to take the lead at 16-14. The Trojans led 28-26 at the half.

The Trojans led the Knights at 51-42. The Knights chipped away at the lead with a 12-3 run eventually tied the game at 54.

The Knights end the season at 15-13. Trajan Harris, who made two clutch three-pointers and sank three free throws to tie the game in regulation led the Knights with 14 points. Jakub Karwowski had 12 points. The Knights leading scorer Godfrey Rolle was held to 11 points. Goy Lew added 10 points. Karwowski had 11 rebounds to lead the Knights.

The Trojans improve to 20-9 and will face the North number two seed team in La Junta, Colo., in the quarterfinals of the Region IX Basketball Tournament. Job Alexander had 18 points for the Trojans. Tykeem Anderson added 15 points and Travell Alexander had 13 points. Cole Lawrence had 10 rebounds to lead the Trojans.

The loss concludes the career for the three sophomores Rolle, Buom Dubuol and Goy Lew for the Knights.

North Platte – The North Platte Community College Knights basketball team will travel to Trinidad, Colo., for the first round of the Region IX Tournament on Saturday, March 3 to play the Trinidad State Junior College Trojans.

The Knights and the Trojans split the season series. The Knights defeated the Trojans in North Platte on Dec 2, 72-67. The Trojans returned the favor by beating the Knights 88-70 in Trinidad. The Knights hold a 15-13 advantage over the Trojans in the all-time series.

The Trojans are the third seed in the tournament with a 9-7 record in Region IX South Sub-Region. Overall the Trojans record is 19-9. The Trojans have three players averaging in double figures led by Tykeem Anderson at 12.6 points per game. Next in scoring is Trevell Cunningham at 12.5 ppg. The third Trojan to average in double figures is Job Alexander at 10.9 ppg. In the two games against the Knights, Anderson averaged 14 ppg,, Cunningham scored 15.5 ppg, and Alexander scored 12.5 ppg, Leading in rebounding for the Trojans is Jesus Martinez at 5.1 rebounds per game.

The Knights are the sixth seed in the tournament with an 8-8 record in the South Sub-Region. They are 15-12 overall. Godfrey Rolle leads the Knights in scoring with 19.4 ppg. Rolle is the number 23 leading scorer on the career all-time scoring list with 919 career points. He is seven points away from Ken Cera and 11 points from Diontae Champion. Trajan Harris is second on the Knights in scoring with a 10.3 ppg average. The leading rebounder for the Knights is Jakub Karwowski at 6.3 rpg.

The winner of the game will advance to the quarterfinals of the Region IX Tournament, which will be held at the location of the highest seed remaining after the first round games. Otero Junior College is the number one seed. They will play number eight Northeastern Junior College. Western Nebraska Community College is the second seed and they will play McCook Community College. The fourth seed is Lamar Community College and they will host five seed Laramie County Community College.

Tip-off is set for 7 pm CST.

The game will be broadcast on the radio on ESPN 1410 and on the Internet at www.northplattepost.com. It will also be live-streamed and the link will be found at www.npccknights.com.

Columbus – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights basketball team ended their season at the first round of the Region IX Division II basketball tournament, being defeated by the Central Community College Lady Raiders 88-77 on Wednesday night.

The Lady Knights end their season with a 4-22 record. The Lady Knights were led in scoring by Naria Hall with 19 points. Allison Tichy and Peighton Porter each ended with 13 points. Nahatabaa Nacona added 12 points. Donaija Buirst led the Lady Knights with 10 rebounds.

The Lady Raiders had five players in double figures led by Maddy Wolfe with 24 points. Quenshae Love was close behind at 22 points. Alexis Raemaekers added 12 points. Paxton Throne had 11 points and Payton Blanke finished with 10 points.

The Lady Raiders, now 9-20 on the season, advance to the Region IX Division II championship on Monday, March 5 in Beatrice against the Southeast Community College Lady Storm.

North Platte – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights basketball team will travel to Columbus and face the Central Community College Lady Raiders in the first round of the Region IX Division II Basketball Tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 pm.

The Lady Raiders is the second seed in the tournament after losing to Southeast Community College on Sunday, 92-60 in Beatrice, to finish with a 2-2 record in Region IX Division II play.

The Lady Raiders are 7-20 on the season. They will play a warm-up game tonight against Little Priest Tribal College to end their regular season.

Maddy Wolfe leads the Lady Raiders in scoring with a 14.4 points per game average. Quenshae Love is next on the Lady Raiders in scoring, also averaging 14.4 ppg. Love played in six fewer games than Wolfe. Two other Lady Raiders are averaging in double figures: Payton Blanke at 12.1 ppg., and Lexie Bacon at 10.5 ppg. Wolfe also leads the Lady Raiders in rebounding at 9.1 rebounds per game. Blanke is next at 8.9 rpg.

The Lady Knights finish the regular season at 4-21 overall and 0-4 in Region IX Division II play. Naria Hall leads the Lady Knights in scoring at 13.8 ppg. Allison Tichy is second at 13.4 ppg. Peghton Porter leads in rebounding at 8.2 rpg.

Tichy is number 18 on the Lady Knights all-time career scoring list with 581 career points. She is 21 points away from number 17 Jill Cooper, who played from 1988-1990.

The winner of the game will travel to Beatrice on March 5 for the Region IX Division II championship game against Southeast Community College.

The game will be broadcast on the radio at ESPN 1410 and on the Internet at www.northplattepost.com.

Former North Platte Bulldog softball standout, Kenzi Wiseman added two more homeruns to help Doane University to a 3-1 record over the weekend.

Wiseman hit her second homerun of the year in a double-header split with Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday. She then added her team leading third homerun, a 2-run blast, in a sweep of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas on Sunday.

Wiseman is hitting .450 with 3 homeruns and 9 RBI thru six games. Doane improves to 6-4 on the season.

North Platte – The North Platte Community College Knights basketball team were defeated by the Western Nebraska Community College Cougars in the regular season finale, 86-58, Saturday afternoon at the McDonald – Belton Gymnasium.

It was the last home game for sophomores Godfrey Rolle, Goy Lew, and Buom Duboul.

The Cougars controlled the game from the opening tip and never trailed in the game. In the first half the Cougars led by as much as 14 points at 24-10. The Knights were able to pull within four at 31-27 and trailed at halftime 42-31.

In the first half, the Knights shot 9 for 28 from the field for 32 percent.

In the second half, the Cougars maintained a double digit lead.

The Knights continued their cold shooting at 34 percent in second half and 33 percent for the game.

The Cougars shot 48.3 percent from the field, including 15 three-pointers in the game.

The Knights, 15-12 on the season and 8-8 in Region IX South Sub-Region play were led in scoring by Rolle, who scored 20 points. Lew was the only other Knight to score in double figures with 16 points. Lew and Jakub Karwowski each had five rebounds to lead the Knights.

The Cougars had five players in double figures led by Vinnie Shahid with 21 points. Martin Roub was next with 18 points. Jervay Green added 13 points, Marlon Sierra had 12 points and Trent Harris finished with 10 points. Sierra had 10 rebounds to lead the Cougars.

The Knights, as the sixth seed, will travel to the third seed Trinidad State for the opening round of the Region IX Tournament on March 3rd.

North Platte – The North Platte Community College Knights basketball team overcame a slow start and defeated the Eastern Wyoming College Lancers 81-76 on Friday night at the McDonald – Belton Gymnasium .

The Lancers jumped out to a 15-10 lead behind a pair of Alek Cosic three-pointers.

The Knights went on their own run of 16 straight points to grab 26-15 lead. The Knights led throughout the first half by double digits leading by as much as 16 at 35-19.

The Knights held a 40-30 lead at half time.

The Lancers began to chip away at the Knights lead in the second half. They pulled within four at 67-63. The Lancers could not get any closer and had to foul down the stretch. The Knights went to the free throw line 16 times in the last six minutes and connected on 14 of them to finish off the win.

The Knights, now 15-11 overall and 8-7 in the South Sub-Region of Region IX. Goy Lew led the Knights in scoring with a career high 23 points. Godfrey Rolle was a point behind at 22 points. Jakub Karwowski added 15 to the Knights scoring total. Lew also led the Knights in rebounding with 10 rebounds for his first career double-double.

The Lancers are 2-24 on the season and 0-15 in South Sub-Region play.

The Lancers had four players in double figures led by Brandon Meadows with 21 points. Cosic was next in scoring with 16 points. Jordan Mirich added 14 points and Daniel Wright finished with 11 points. Chad Hencricks had seven rebounds to lead the Lancers.

The Knights will conclude their regular season on Saturday when they host Western Nebraska Community College Saturday afternoon at 3 PM. The game will be broadcast on ESPN 1410 and on the Internet at www.northplattepost.com. It will also be live-streamed at www.npccknights.com.

North Platte – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights basketball team ended their regular season with a 78-64 loss to the Eastern Wyoming College Lady Lancers Friday evening at the McDonald – Belton Gymnasium.

The game was the final home game for five sophomores including Peighton Porter, Allison Tichy, Naria Hall, Lexa Lealiiee and Loren Lealiiee.

The Lady Knights stayed with the Lady Lancers in the first half trailing 20-18 at the end of the first quarter and 32-31 at the end of the half.

The Lady Lancers held a 30-20 lead midway through the 2nd quarter but the Lady Knights went on a 11-2 run to end the half.

In the third quarter, the Lady Knights continued to stay with the Lady Lancers, but with the score tied at 47, the Lady Lancers went on a 13-4 run to end the third quarter and held a 60-51 lead.

The Lady Lancers outscored the Lady Knights in the fourth quarter 18-13 to secure the win.

The Lady Knights dropped to 4-21 on the season. They were led in scoring by Hall, who finished with 19 points. Tichy added 11 points to move into 18th place on the Lady Knights all-time career scoring list with 581 points. Hall and Porter each had eight rebounds to lead the Lady Knights.

The Lady Lancers improve to 19-10 on the season. Pamela Bethel led the Lady Lancers with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Lauren O’Connell added 11 points.

The Lady Knights will have to wait and see who their opponent will be in the Region IX Division II tournament. The Lady Knights are the third seed and will travel to face the second seed, with the winner of that game to travel to the number one seed for the championship game.

Southeast Community College, 3-0 in Region IX Division II hosts Central Community College on Saturday to determine the top two seeds in the Region IX Division II tournament.