WNCC women's basketball team gets 14th seed at nationals, will face ASA College

                The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team earned a No. 14 seed in next week’s national tournament that begins March 18 in Salina, Kan.

                The Cougars (20-14) will open play in the 24-team, single-elimination tournament on Tuesday, March 19 at 9 a.m. (MST) against No. 19 seed ASA College out of Brooklyn, N.Y. ASA enters with a 24-3 record.

                A win against ASA will put the Cougars into a Wednesday, 4 p.m. contest against the No. 3 seed Hutchinson Community College (33-1).

                “Seeds really don’t matter and it shouldn’t really affect us that much,” sophomore Jessica Aratani said. “Even having 14 losses and being a 14^th seed is still pretty good. “

                Neither WNCC nor ASA has seen each other so both teams will be facing each other blind other than what they scrounge up from other schools.

                “That is the fun part of the national tournament is that we haven’t seen the other players or teams all the year,” Aratani said. “Coach [Dave] Harnish said that they probably won’t be used to our style of play where we hustle and do the little things right, and we rebound. I think with those fundamentals, we will be fine.”

                The Cougars are making their 10^th trip to the national tournament and have qualified for the national tournament seven times since 2000. The last time the Cougars made the national tournament was 2008. The Cougars highest finish at nationals was second in 2003.

                WNCC earned the berth in the national tournament after beating No. 16 Gillette College 62-54 on Thursday. WNCC dropped out of the ranking last week and only received honorable mention votes.

                Aratani said the players are excited to be making a trip to the national tournament after winning regionals.

                “We are pretty excited for this week in practicing to go to nationals,” the Morrill High graduate said. “We are looking forward to nationals. Winning that Region IX championship is good, but Coach Harnish said there are two types of teams that go to nationals, ones that are happy they just made it and ones that want to go down there and do something. Hopefully we can go down there and win some games.”

                This year’s national tournament features a new format where the 16 district/region winners earned an automatic berth. Also, four runner-up district/region winners earned a stop while four at-large teams made the field.

                The four zone or runner-up qualifiers include Northeast (Neb.) Community College (28-4), Volunteer State Community College (23-4), Kaskaskia Community College (24-8), and Weatherford College (24-5). The four at-large teams include Blinn College (20-3), Chipola College (25-6), Northwest Florida State College (24-4), and North Idaho College (28-4).

                First round games on Monday will be No. 16 Weatherford vs. No. 17 Northeast at Nebraska at 9 a.m.; No. 9 Blinn vs. No. 24 Kaskaskia (24-8) at 11 a.m., No. 13 Midland (26-7 vs. No. 20 Volunteer State (23-4) at 1 p.m., No. 12 North Idaho (28-4) against No. 21 Williston State (30-3) at 3:30 p.m., No. 15 Crowder (28-5) against Redlands Community College at 5:30 p.m. and No. 10 Chipola College against No. 23 Southwest Illinois at 7:30 p.m.

                Tuesday’s contests open up with No. 14 WNCC taking on ASA College at 9 a.m., No. 11 Northwest Florida State (24-4) against No. 22 Itawamba (19-9), No. 1 Trinidad Valley (32-1) against Weatherford/Northeast winner at 1 p.m., No. 8 Darton State (30-3) against Blinn/Kaskaskia winner at 3:30 p.m., No. 4 Gulf Coast (27-4) against Midland/Volunteer State winner at 5:30 p.m. and No. 5 Shelton State (32-0) against North Idaho/Williston State winner at 7:30 p.m.

                The rest of the first games will finish up on Wednesday with No. 2 Central Arizona (29-1) taking on Crowder/Redlands winner at noon, No. 7 Southern Idaho (21-11) facing Chipola/SW Illinois winner at 2 p.m., No. 3 Hutchinson (33-1) taking on WNCC/ASA winner at 4 p.m., and No. 6 Walters State (29-1) facing NW Florida/Itawamba winner at 6 p.m.

                WNCC’s first round match-up could be a good fit with two teams that feature the same kind of talent. ASA College has two players that have been hitting on 3-point shots of over 35 percent n sophomore Shaquita Smith of Buffalo, N.Y., and freshman Kelcey Castron of Fairlawn, N.J. Neither one, however, is in the top 50 in 3-point shooting in the nation.

                WNCC counters with two of the top 50 shooters in the nation as freshman Mikayla Brower is leading the country at 54.3 percent, while fellow freshman Shalisa Moffit is 43^rd at 38.4 percent.

                Aratani said it won’t be easy at nationals but they are up for the challenge.

                “It won’t be easy by any means, but if you look back on our season it hasn’t been easy all year,” she said. “We have had challenges and I think we were ready for anything the other teams threw at us. “

                The national tournament will be telecasted live on the Internet at www.ihigh.com/njcaatv.