They will see just how polished they are when they entertain Laramie County Community College Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Cougar Palace. It will also be Youth Basketball Night, where youngsters will get free admission if they wear their favorite basketball jersey.
“We are ready to go and we are working hard in practice,” freshman Saul Torres said. “After we came back from break, we have been having good practices with good intensity. We are ready to go get another win.”
WNCC, who has been practicing since last Tuesday, definitely have a little bit more to play for against LCCC considering the Golden Eagles upended the Cougars back in December 70-66 at Cheyenne. In that contest, WNCC held a 9-point lead midway through the second half and watched the Golden Eagles battle back to get the win. For most of the Cougars, they remember that sour taste in their mouth.
“I don’t think we are worried about any let downs,” Torres said. “LCCC beat us in their house about a month ago, so we are ready to come back and beat them this time and play better. That loss is on some of our minds but we just have to work through it and do a better job.
“We just have to play good defense and be effective on the offensive side. We need to take good, smart shots and get it to the guys that are scoring the most points.”
The last time the Cougars stepped on the court for competition was back on Dec. 12 and 13 when they hosted the WNCC Holiday Classic. In that tournament, they upended Little Big Horn 122-70 and then the Tri-state All-stars 112-64.
The Cougars enter with an impressive record, finishing the first semester 12-4 and winners of nine of their last 11 games.
“We are on a good roll and moving forward with the season,” Torres said. “We just want to get the best out of this season.”
While WNCC hasn’t played a game since mid-December, LCCC has been involved in two games, both games the Golden Eagles lost. LCCC dropped sub-region contests last weekend to Casper College 65-63, and to Western Wyoming Community College 66-61.
LCCC enters Tuesday’s encounter with the Cougars with a 5-10 record, but the Golden Eagles have plenty fire power. The team is led by Travis Bostick and Dionte’ Clayborne, who are each averaging nearly 15 points a game.
The Cougars, on the other hand, have five players averaging in double figures, led by freshman Scott Bamforth and Francisco Cruz at 17.8 and 14.8 points a game. Also hitting the double figure side are freshmen Larry Brown at 12.1, freshman Tarell Clark at 11, and sophomore Daniel Smith at 10.4.
Torres said the team’s depth is playing a big factor in their success this year.
“The strength of this team is the depth of the bench and the unselfishness of our players,” he said. “We are very unselfish and we take good shots with the right people. Having five players in double figures is good for the team and shows our unselfishness.”
After Tuesday’s contest, the Cougars will be on the road for a Friday contest at Lamar, who handed North Platte Community College its second loss of the season on Saturday. Then, they will entertain Casper College on Jan. 20. Torres said this is the important part of the season.
“The second semester we will have better games and better teams to play,” he said. “It is huge that we perform at a high level and start moving forward to the region tournament and hopefully after that the national tournament.”
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