CASPER, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team led for much of the final three quarters, but it was a Casper College 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left in overtime that gave the 22nd-ranked T-Birds the 69-65 overtime win in Casper, Wyoming, Tuesday evening.
It was only the second time since the 1988-89 season that Casper and WNCC played an overtime contest. The last time before Tuesday overtime contest game in the 1992-93 season when Casper won 60-59 in the extra period. That same year, WNCC came back and defeated the T-Birds to win their first Region IX championship.
In the history between these two schools, there have been very little run-away contests and Tuesday night was definitely one of them.
The contest started out in Casper’s favor as the T-Birds ran to a 10-4 lead. WNCC settled in and finally tied the contest at 16-16 on a Brynn Sybrant bucket. WNCC took the lead moments later to close out the first quarter 18-16 on a Veralyn Aviles bucket.
WNCC played strong in the second quarter in building a 10-point lead at 28-18 on a Dunja Stojanovic bucket. The Cougars led 30-20 and that was when Casper went on a 9-point run to make it a 30-29 contest. Sybrant closed out the half with two buckets for the 34-31 Cougar lead at halftime.
The third quarter saw Casper make it a 34-33 deficit but WNCC went on an 8-2 run to lead 42-35. WNCC kept the lead to around five. It was under 10 seconds when the dramatics started as Casper nailed a triple to make it a 51-47 lead, but Aviles hit a long-range triple before the buzzer to give the Cougars the 54-47 lead.
The fourth quarter saw the Cougars go up 56-47. Casper settled in and scored the next six points to make it a 56-53 deficit. WNCC went up 60-55 with about two minutes to play. Casper tied the game at 60 on a 3-pointer with 37.8 seconds. The Cougars couldn’t get a shot and Casper had a chance to win the game with 4.1 seconds. Instead, the T-birds turned the ball over giving the Cougars a change to win on a last-second shot. With three seconds left, WNCC inbounded the ball and Aviles’ shot from NBA range just barely missed going in to force overtime.
The extra period saw WNCC lead 65-62 with two minutes to play. Casper held the Cougars scoreless the rest of the game and the T-birds tied the game at 65-65 with 1:49 to play. WNCC still couldn’t get a bucket to fall and Casper hit the go-ahead bucket with 2.2 seconds to play for the win.
Both teams didn’t shoot the best. WNCC was 38 percent from the field and were just 3-of-16 from beyond the arc. Casper was 36 percent from the field and not much better from the 3-point line at 5-of-18. WNCC was 10-of-15 from the charity stripe while Casper was 14-of-23.
WNCC had five players in double figures, led by Aviles with 15 points followed by Celina Donyo with 13 points, and 10 points each from Charisma Johnson, Ella Chesta-Carty, and Brynn Sybrant.
Casper had three in double figures, led by Luna Ueda with 22 and Hassana Amadu and Csenge Szomszed each with 17.
WNCC will be back home next week when they host Miles Community College on Monday and Eastern Wyoming College on Tuesday. WNCC will then hit the road later that weekend for the LCCC Thanksgiving Classic when they face Central Wyoming College and Laramie County Community College.

WNCC 18 16 20 6 5 – 65
Casper 16 15 16 13 9 – 69
WNCC
Veralyn Aviles 15, Charisma Johnson 10, Zozefine Sipolina 5, Ella Chesta-Carty 10, Brynn Sybrant 10, Dunja Stojanovic 2, Celina Donyo 13.
CASPER
Luna Ueda 22, Hassana Amadu 17, Panka Halmy 2, Csenge Szomszed 17, Kennedy Davila 6, Mila James 4.