The home stand begins Tuesday night when the Cougars entertain Casper College beginning at 5:30 p.m. for the women’s contest with the men’s game to follow.
WNCC is entering the slurry of home games looking to mesh together as a team entering next month’s regional tournaments. Tuesday’s contests against Casper won’t be easy as the T-Birds defeated the Cougars back on Jan. 20. The Cougar women fell 87-85 in overtime with a chance to win at the end of regulation, while the Cougar men fell 75-58.
The Casper women come into the contest with a 22-3 record and a No. 19 ranking in the NJCAA national poll. Last week, the T-birds defeated Central Wyoming 60-55 and Western Wyoming 75-51. The Casper men own a 19-6 record after dropping Central Wyoming 69-63 and Western Wyoming 73-56.
The Cougar women are 18-5 on the season and need two wins to earn their 23rd straight 20-win season. The WNCC men enter Tuesday’s contest with a 13-10 mark.
The Cougar women’s players realize they let a win slip through their fingertips against Casper the last time the two Region IX powers faced each other. That setback is still on the back of their minds.
“We definitely want to come back and beat them especially since we lost to them on their home court. We want to make sure they don’t do that that to us on our home court,” freshman Khayla Gladney said. “We need to start out aggressive, box out and try to get their big girls in foul trouble.”
It won’t be easy for the Cougar women, who received honorable mention votes in last week’s national poll. The Cougar women lost three of four games before sweeping North Platte and McCook over the weekend. The Cougars lost to Casper 87-85 in overtime, Northeastern Colorado 58-39, and Otero 60-56.
WNCC defeated Northeast Nebraska 93-89 in overtime and the topped North Platte 66-45 and McCook 66-58 this weekend.
“I think we played well this weekend,” Gladney said. “The coaches are a little bit frustrated with us, but overall, he was happy that we won. He wants us to work on helping on defense, and cutting off or stopping the ball.”
After Tuesday’s contest, the Cougar women will entertain Eastern Wyoming College at 7 p.m. followed by Northeast Nebraska Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. The last time the Cougar women played at home, they lost to Otero. They now know what they need to do to avoid another collapse like they had before last weekend.
“We are definitely looking forward to playing at home,” Gladney said. “We are going to start off the game being very aggressive and start it off from the jump. We just need to work together, being aggressive and to play as a team.”
The Cougar men will face a tall order in their contest Tuesday night. Casper features a tall lineup that caused the Cougars fits the first time the two squads met. Geoffrey Firmin said the key is playing their game.
“All their five players are tall, so the key for us is to control the tempo,” the red-shirt freshman said. “We have to run and make them play defense because if we play their tempo, they will kick our tails like they did in the first game. I think the key to the game will be running the court and make them play defense.”
The Cougar men, who have been battling despite playing with a smaller lineup, realize that defense will be a major key in the team’s bid for a win.
“We have to put a lot of pressure on them because they have really tall guards and they can’t really handle the ball like small guards,” Firmin said. “We also have to box out because they are really tall, so if we don’t box out they will take all the rebounds.”
The Cougars are entering the contest with some momentum after earning a hard-fought contest against McCook, in a gym that is smaller than a lot of high school gyms In the area. The win was huge for them as it was their first sub-region win of the season.
The Cougars actually should have two sub-region wins having fallen to Northeast Nebraska on Jan. 23 78-76 on a buzzer beater. Frimin said they are looking forward to the rematch with Northeast Nebraska on Saturday afternoon.
“We should have beat them,” Firmin said. “Now we have five of six home games and we are a pretty good home team. I think we have a chance to win all five games at home and then go to EWC in our last regular season game. We can finish the season with six wins in a row.”
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