The CWC men's basketball team is inching closer to beginning their Region IX conference play, and their tournament in Sterling, Colorado this past weekend was their last scheduled competition before Christmas break. And although they were still in their non-conference schedule, the Rustlers faced two Region IX-South teams on Friday and Saturday. 

North Platte Community College was the first challenger on the hardwood Friday afternoon. The Knights (7-5) gave CWC all they could handle, and the Rustlers fed it right back to them. An evenly matched game made for an exciting first half, with Central Wyoming only behind by one at the break. Both teams limited their turnovers and kept healthy paces of scoring. The heat was turned up even more in the second half, with each team exchanging three pointers and fast breaks points. Both squads shot over 40% from behind the arc, which made for a tight finish in the last minutes of the second half. Jordan Peel, Dominic McLawrence, Julian Ormond and Isaac Patik all reached double digit points, but it ultimately wasn't enough to secure the win. The Rustlers fell 70-63 to North Platte.

The Rustlers needed to dust themselves off from that fistfight, because their next game was at 10 o'clock the next morning against Otero College. But you could tell they were basketball players the way they rebounded from their loss the previous day. CWC woke up on the right side of the bed and leaped out to a 48-34 lead at halftime against the Rattlers. Isaac Patik and Jordan Peel led the offensive charge for the Rustlers with their dominance in the paint and behind the arc. Peel was red hot from three point range and sank five out of his nine attempts. Patik worked his magic around the rim and made 70% of his shots to get him to 15 first half points. After establishing such a commanding lead, they never looked back. Otero couldn't bring it back close enough to make it interesting, and Peel and Patik finished with 23 and 25 (respectively) to lead Central Wyoming to a 83-68 win.