It wouldn’t hard to notice the determination on the faces of the WNCC women’s basketball team as they enter the Region IX tournament in Miles City, Mont., March 1-4.

Last year, Casper College snapped the Cougars four-year hold of the Region IX championship and this year’s players would so like to recapture that tournament championship.

WNCC’s quest for that title begins Saturday at 10 a.m. against Eastern Wyoming College. The championship is slated for 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The games can be heard on the Internet courtesy of KATL Radio at www.mccpioneers.com. The came will also be carried on KOZY-101.3 FM on Saturday. Sunday's game, if they play, will be on AM690 at 1 p.m.

“I think it will be a lot tougher then last year,” sophomore Emma Beddome said. “I think last year they [the team] had more expectations of winning, but this year the competition will be a lot tougher. We have four tough games we need to et through in order to win.”

There is no doubt that the road to a regional championship will be difficult. After the first round, the winner will probably face Sheridan College. Sheridan, though, must get by Lamar Community College. Sheridan features the top two scorers in the region – Tonishea Mack at 20.8 points a game and Tahnee Robinson at 17.6 points.

This year’s team, though, has one ingredient that last year’s Cougar team lacked at the end of the season – the energy and drive to win.

“We are playing really well and we are in the peak of our season right now with how we have been playing,” sophomore Chelsea Lyles said. “Coach [Dave] Harnish made a good point in the locker room [after Wednesday’s game with EWC] when he said last year’s team started off really well and then finished without playing with enough energy, and this year it is the exact opposite. We didn’t play as strong at the beginning of the season, but we are coming out strong right know at the end of the season. That is when it counts.”

The Cougars started the season pre-season ranked No. 9 in the country. After three losses in November, the Cougars fell out of the rankings. That is until the final week of the season when they re-entered the polls at No. 25 on Wednesday.

“We started off being No. 9 and the when you lose, you practically go out of the ranking,” Beddome said. “So it is good to get back into the rankings but, again, our team doesn’t cares where we are ranked. We just go out and play each game.”

What has generated the Cougars 9-game winning streak heading into the regional tournament is a fierce defense that powers the offense. The Cougars are the No. 2 defensive team in the nation, giving up 48.897 points a game. The No. 1 team in the nation is Miles Community College at 48.23, who is this year’s host for the regional tournament.

“We started off the season really slow and then this semester we picked up our game,” Beddome said. “We have been concentrating a lot on defense because when we play good defense, our offense comes.”

The other thing that makes this year’s team stand out is there is not one offensive star. On any given night, any one of a plethora of players can step up. Against EWC on Wednesday night, five players hit the double-figure column, led by Lyles’ double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. The others included Carly Glisan and Alison Cheney with 11 points, and Cheri Palmer and SeLina Ysac with 10 points each.

In fact, three of those leading scorers come off the bench to provide plenty of spark to the Cougar line-up.

“Our bench scores a lot; we just don’t have one girl that is effective at offense, our entire team can come out and do something offensively,” Lyles, who leads the team in scoring with a 11.8 scoring average, said. “That is something that I think we have over a lot of the teams in Region IX in that our bench and all of our players can score and be effective on the offensive end.”

Beddome said the team’s inside-outside game is what has been the team’s bread and butter recently. The Cougars led the region in 3-point shooting, sizzling the nets for a 36.4 average. The team only connected on 121 attempts from beyond the arc, but it is there shot selection that has stood out.

“We like to get the ball around to everyone and no one cares who scores the most,” Beddome said. “We just like to get the best shot. We have been more into getting the ball into the post and then kicking it out. The inside, outside game has improved a lot.”

Jenna Colwell and Ysac, both freshmen, leads the team from long-range. Colwell is shooting 42.9 percent (3-of-7), while Ysac, a Scottsbluff High graduate, is connecting on 41.9 percent (13-of-31). Right behind are sophomore Cheney, Glisan, Beddome and Dana Iverson.

Glisan has had the hot-hand in the last four games, connecting on eight treys, including three each in win against Otero Junior College and EWC to finish the regular season.

Lyles, who already has one regional and national championship under her belt after the volleyball team captured the titles in November, realizes they can’t go into the tournament and expect teams to roll over.

“It will be tough because it won’t be like volleyball where it was pretty much that we knew we were going to win it. Basketball will be a lot tougher. We just have to be mentally prepared,” she said. “It will be tough because we have four tough days back-to-back. It will be a dogfight. I think if we come out and play hard every single night, we shouldn’t have any problem, but it will be hard to play four nights.”

For Beddome, one of five sophomores on this year’s team, it would mean a lot to compete at the national tournament. To do that, they will probably need to beat the No. 12 team in the nation, Miles Community College who sports an impressive 29-1 record.

“All of us want to experience the atmosphere of winning a regional title,” she said. “It would mean so much to us if we could win and we have a good chance of doing that. It is one game at a time and we have to concentrate on EWC on Saturday and get through that one. Next up is Sheridan which will be hard a game.”