The Cougar men, who enter the tournament with a 12-18 record, open tournament play against the No. 1 seed from the north sub-region Casper College at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Casper earned the right to host the tournament after defeating Sheridan College last week.
WNCC coach Russ Beck said Casper will have plenty of incentive when the two teams tip-off in the regional tournament first round.
“It will be a tremendous challenge playing Casper at Casper, especially since we beat them there that last time we played them,” he said. “They are going to come out with a lot of energy. We are going to have to match that energy and we are going to have to do it for 40 minutes. We need to play more selfless and put more of our energies to the defensive end of the floor if we want to be successful. We just need to try to control the tempo especially in this first game. That is all we can focus on. We need to take it as a one game approach. It is a do-or-die situation of win or go home. We just need to come out and play our best; be the best teammates that we can be and play together.”
The WNCC and Casper contest will be the final game of the day one. Other first-round match-
ups on Saturday finds Sheridan facing Northeastern Junior College at 1 p.m., North Platte Community
College taking on Dawson Community College at 3 p.m., and Otero Junior College meeting Miles
Community College at 6 p.m.
The first round continues Sunday with four more games. Laramie County Community College
tips things off against Western Wyoming Community College at 1 p.m., followed by Gillette College and
Eastern Wyoming College at 3 p.m., Central Wyoming College against Trinidad State Junior College at 6
p.m., and Lamar Community College against Northwest College at 8 p.m.
The winner of the Casper and WNCC game will face the winner of the Lamar and Northwest
game on Monday at 8 p.m. Semi-finals are slated for Tuesday with the championship game set for 7 p.m.
The winner of the regional tournament qualifies for the NJCAA national tournament March 18-23 in
Hutchinson, Kan.
Beck likes his team’s chances since the Cougars are 2-1 this season at Casper. Also, he said, the
tournament host hasn’t won the title in the past couple of years.
“We have played some games on the floor this year and it is a place that we know we can
win and we know we are a capable team,” he said. “Hopefully, it just clicks for us at the right time
and we can go out there and compete on Saturday and come away with a win. The crazy thing about
tournament time is anybody can win. I think it has been a few years since a host team has won the
tournament. There is always a lower seed and it takes getting hot at the right time.”
WNCC split a pair of games back in November at Casper, falling to the College of Southern Idaho
68-67 before stopping Salt Lake Community College 82.76. Then, in January, the Cougars defeated
Casper 88-81 with four players in double figures. Charles Ward led the team with 28 points followed by
Tahir Little with 14, Rich Williams with 13, and Zach Clemens with 10.
Beck said this team has the ingredients it takes to win a championship. He sees this team very
similar to the NBA Los Angeles Lakers, who have plenty of talent but are up and down winning games.
“We have a good collection of players and the Lakers of a good collection of players. They [the
Lakers] have struggled a little bit this year and we have had struggles this year,” he said. “We just have
to be consistent and try to get the most out of each guy. It is the point in the year where you shouldn’t
be talking about guys’ different roles. If everybody accepts their role on the team, we play together and
maximize our roles, than we have a chance to do some good things in the tournament.”
WNCC is very capable of making some noise at the tournament if they put all the pieces
together and play for 40 minutes. In the percentage of the Cougars’ defeats this season, most have
come because of a five or 10 minute span where the Cougars lose intensity and focus.
Beck said against Casper, they can’t afford that to happen as Casper has some talented players.
The key is minimizing the output of the Thunderbirds’ top three – Remi Dibo, Dominique Lee, and Corey
Spence.
“We will have to do a good job on Dibo and more importantly on Dominique Lee,” he said. “And
then we have to control Corey Spence, their point guard. So, if we can take one of those three out of the
equation and try to hold down the other two under their averages, then I think we have a chance.”
If the Cougars can pull the upset, they will have the momentum heading into the rest of the
tournament.
“If you manage to beat the No. 1 seed, you basically take their spot and have the same pathway
to the championship game in playing the exact same teams,” he said. “So, you can inherit the number
one seed if you can take care of business. To do that, we will have to rebound the ball.”
Region IX Men’s Tournament
Saturday, March 2
1 p.m. – Sheridan vs. Northeastern JC
3 p.m. – North Platte vs. Dawson
6 p.m. – Otero vs. Miles
8 p.m. – Casper vs. WNCC
Sunday, March 3
1 p.m. – Laramie County vs. Western Wyoming
3 p.m. – Gillette vs. Eastern Wyoming
6 p.m. – Central Wyoming vs. Trinidad State
8 p.m. – Lamar vs. Northwest Wyoming
Monday, March 4
1 p.m. – Sheridan/NJC vs. LCCC/Western Wyoming
3 p.m. – North Platte/Dawson vs. Gillette/EWC
6 p.m. – Otero/Miles vs. Central Wyoming/Trinidad
8 p.m. – Casper/WNCC vs. Lamar/Northwest
Tuesday, March 5
Semifinals at 6 and 8 p.m.
Wednesday, March 6
Finals at 7 p.m.
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