The Western Nebraska Community College men’s and women’s basketball teams will look to rebound Saturday against Otero Junior College at Cougar Palace after falling to Northeastern Junior College on Wednesday.
The Cougar women, especially, are hoping to put Wednesday’s second half nightmare behind them as they face the Rattlers at 5:30 p.m., with the men’s game to follow. The Cougar men just want to get back on the court after an emotionally-draining comeback that fell short 85-83 in overtime against the Plainsmen.
“They are anxious to get back on the court because we were one mistake away from winning that game,” WNCC coach Russ Beck said. “Also we really enjoy playing at home. We hope our fans will be as load as those fans at NJC and give us as much support. We have appreciated all the support that we have gotten so far and we will need everybody to get this thing where we need to go.”
Women’s assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said the women’s team needs to refocus after scoring just 14 points in the second half of their game with NJC, and she is hoping playing at home will help refocus the team.
“As a team all semester, if you look at all the games that we have played, we have been having a hard time focusing. We were 16 points down at Lamar, and then 14 points down at Otero and came back and won. We lost in an overtime game at Casper where we were behind by 14 points as well. We were down 14 points at Norfolk and came back and won in overtime. We were up by five at halftime at Sterling and then only scored 14 points in the second half.
“With us being at home, finally, it will help us focus on the game and come out from the get-go and play hard for a full 40 minutes.
The women’s loss on Wednesday was extremely disappointing after the Cougar women scored 80-plus games in eight of their last 10 games.
“The biggest thing to about points is that we try to hammer defense in the kid’s minds; we don’t care as much as what our point totals are,” Pedersen said. “The thing that was disappointing was that they just didn’t execute Wednesday against NJC. If we can get them to understand the value of executing the offense and executing our plays, points will come naturally to them.”
WNCC and Otero have already faced each other this season. The women earned two victories against the Rattlers, winning 68-49 in December at Cougar Palace and then earning a 60-52 victory at LaJunta, Colo.
The Cougar men faced Otero just once this season, earning a 72-58 win over the Rattlers on the road. In that contest, Geddes Robinson led the team with 26 points.
In the last three games, sophomore Francisco Cruz has been on a tear combining for 85 points and 12 3-pointers. Cruz tallied a Cougar career best of 41 points in the win against Eastern Wyoming on Monday, including eight 3-pointers. He also had 28 second-half points in a overtime loss to NJC on Wednesday.
“We have to play hard, which we always do, but we have to play smart and sometimes we don’t play very smart,” Beck said. “We just have to take better care of the basketball. We were 22 of 39 from the free throw line and we had 20-plus turnovers against NJC and we lost by two. You can pick any number of missed free throws or turnovers and that is a game that we should have won by 15 to 20 points.”
Beck said that Otero will not be a pushover. They have plenty of players that are getting looked at by Division I schools.
“We played them down at their place and they have a nice post, about 6-7 and very skilled, that is getting some nice Division I recruitment. They also have a couple guys on the perimeter that can shoot the basketball,” Beck said. “They play hard and I think they are well coached. We expect them to come in and be fired up and try to even up the series, especially since we took one away from them on their home floor. We have to come ready to battle.”
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