A disciplined bowling performance saw NWU-Pukke pick up a vital seven run victory over UWC whose play-off hopes are now out of their hands.
The home side won the toss and elected to bat first, but they lost regular wickets with Wihan Lubbe the only top order batsman to make double figures.
The hard-hitting Lubbe was in impressive form, finding the boundary regularly despite a steady procession of partners at the other end.
Dawood Christians and Lizaad Williams did the damage up front with the ball for UWC, with George Banda and Lesiba Ngoepe chipping in with wickets as well.
Lubbe went to his half-century and got out caught soon afterwards as he tried to force the pace, with some late fireworks coming from Coertse.
Williams picked up two wickets in the final over of the innings as Pukke limped to 129/8.
UWC suffered an early setback when the dangerous George Banda, coming off an undefeated half-century against Kovsies, was run out for just 1.
Ashley Cupido and Jean Heunis consolidated well to guid them to 28/1 after six overs, which showed that they were not thinking about possible bonus points.
However, they lost both set batsmen in quick succession to Armandt Erasmus as first Cupido was bowled by for 13 off 26 balls, before Jeaunis was caught for 16 off 29 balls.
That left UWC facing a tricky chase of 88 runs in the last ten overs with two new batsmen at the crease.
Ngoepe found the boundary a few times but then perished for 25, leaving his side needing 55 runs off 32 balls with just five wickets in hand.
They took the Power Play Plus over in the 16th and it paid off as they made 16 runs to give themselves a chance with 33 required off the last three overs.
Jason Smith and Imraan Hendricks did their utmost to get the runs, but it was not to be as UWC fell short.
Scores:
NWU-Pukke: 129/8 (W Lubbe 55, H Du Plooy 22*, L Williams 3/18, D Christians 2/12)
UWC: 123/5 (J Smith 29*, L Ngoepe 25, A Erasmus 2/24, J van Wyngaardt 1/31)
Teams:
NWU-Pukke: Wihan Lubbe, Kagiso Rapulana, Andre Malan, Wimpie Viljoen, Rohan Kruger (captain), Marques Ackerman, Henning du Plooy, Dewald Joubert, Bjorn Fortuin, Armandt Erasmus, Jovaun van Wyngaardt.
UWC: Dean Mazhawidza, Jason Smith, Lizaad Williams, Imraan Hendricks, Reeve Cyster, Curtley Louw, Zain Webster, Ashley Cupido, George Banda, Lesiba Ngoepe, Jean Heunis.
