Women's basketball team opens national tournament against 30-4 Gulf Coast Community College

The road to a national championship will not be an easy one for the the Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team.

The Cougars, who will be making their fifth trip to the National Tournament in six years, will open competition Tuesday, March 18 at 9 a.m. (MST) against 33-1 Gulf Coast Community College in Salina, Kan. WNCC enters the tournament with a 30-4 record and the No. 14 seed, while Gulf Coast, who many pick as a favorite to win the tournament, enters at No. 3.

The tournament is slated to run from March 18-22. WNCC’s contests can be heard on 101.3 FM as well as on the Internet at KOZY101.3.com.

“I thought we would be seeded a little bit higher. Unfortunately, what happened is we lost games early in the year which really cost us,” WNCC coach Dave Harnish said. “We also had teams in our region that were also ranked in front of us and the national rankings have a lot to do with the seedings. We ended up 25^th in the national polls and with not very many upsets this year in the Top 15 or 20, hurt us as well.

“We got a 14^th seed and there is nothing we can do about it. One thing at the national tournament is that every one that gets there is good. If you don’t see Gulf Coast in the first round, you probably will see them in the second or a later round. Basically, you will have to beat Gulf Coast sometime to win the national championship and we are going to see them the first day.”

Other first round contests on Tuesday include No. 6 Jefferson College out of Hillsboro, Mo., (31-1) meeting No. 11 Monroe Community College out of Rochester, N.Y. (20-7) at 11 a.m.; No. 7 College of Southern Idaho out of Twin Falls, Idaho, (30-2) taking on No. 10 Walters State Community College out of Morristown, Tenn., (29-4) at 1 p.m.; No. 2 University of Arkansas-Ft. Smith out of Ft. Smith, Ark., facing No. 15 Lake Region State College at 3 p.m.; No. 1 Central Arizona College out of Coolidge, Ariz., (31-0) meeting No. 16 Georgia Perimeter College out of Decatur, Ga., (19-14) at 5:15 p.m.; and No. 5 Barton County Community College out of Great Bend, Kan., (32-2) taking on No. 12 Shelton State Community College out of Tuscaloosa, Ala., (28-4) at 7:15 p.m.

The first round finishes on Wednesday with No. 8 Trinity Valley Community College out of Athens, Texas, (26-5) meeting No. 9 Midland College out of Midland, Texas, (28-5) at 11 a.m., followed by No. 4 Southeastern Illinois out of Harrisburg, Ill., (31-2) meeting No. 13 East Central Community College out of Decatur, Miss., (22-6) at 1 p.m.

If the Cougars knock off No. 3 seed Gulf Coast out of Panama City, Fla., they will play Wednesday at 5 p.m. against the winner of the Jefferson College and Monroe Community College game. If WNCC falters, they will fall into the consolation bracket and play Wednesday at 3 p.m. against the loser of the Jefferson/Monroe game.

Harnish is hoping his team goes down with the same attitude they have had during the last month of the season, where they ran off 13 straight wins since last losing to Northeastern Junior College 79-61 back on Jan. 23. In fact, the Cougars have won 26 of their last 27 contests after starting the season 4-3.

“You don’t make the national tournament unless you are a very good team,” Harnish said. “It is still a situation where I hope our kids realize that we weren’t the favorite to win our regional tournament and if we go down there with that type of attitude that we had at regionals to be the underdog and play above our ability, we can scare anybody. I think the one staple that we have is we can defend really well and possibly they haven’t seen a team that plays defense like us. We are basically going to go down there and do what we have been doing the last month and if we can do that, we certainly can pull an upset.”

WNCC certainly has been the Cinderella team all season, which included winning the Region IX tournament 51-48 over Miles Community College, the No. 12^th-ranked team in the nation on the Pioneers home court a week ago. The Cougars also defeated Sheridan College, who had the top two scorers in the region, 84-78, in the second round of the regional tournament. The Cougars entered both games as the underdog, just like they will do next week at nationals.

WNCC, in fact, has played Gulf Coast several times at the national tournament, the last time in 2003, when the Cougars fell to the Commodores in the National Championship game 81-42.

In fact, there are plenty of similarities between the 2003 tournament and this year’s tournament. The Cougars actually play in the same time slot as the 2003 team, plus the game is also on the same date – March 18.

During the 2003 run at the national tournament, the Cougars opened up with a 65-46 win over Crowder College, followed by a 54-48 win over Hiwassee College and then a 61-56 win over Midland College in the semis.

Harnish said this is a different team then he had five years ago, but likes that Cinderella role his team has entering this year’s tournament.

“It has been a different year for me as well as for Western Nebraska with the position we are in. We have always been the favorites, whether it be at the regional tournament or any game we played,” Harnish said. “We were 4-3 at one time and even in the regional standings we were about sixth or seventh much of the year. It was a year where we were the underdog in a sense where we did things differently this year then we have in the past. It was a good feeling to win regionals this year based on the perception that we weren’t as good as we were in the past and we coming through and winning it again was huge.”