The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team enters this weekend’s regional tournament in Sheridan, Wyo., with nothing to lose, and that is exactly how they are approaching the post-season. The Cougar men, after starting the season 9-1, are 18-12 on the season as they enter the post-season tourney this weekend in Sheridan, Wyo. WNCC begins tournament play Saturday at 8 p.m. against Lamar Community College, the defending Region IX champions. The tournament tips off Friday afternoon with four first-round games.
WNCC head coach Russ Beck said his team, hopefully, put Monday’s regular season-ending loss to Eastern Wyoming College, where they shot 19 percent in the second half, behind them.
“I told the boys that the loss on Monday will be one of two things,” he said. “It might light a fire underneath our belly and we might just go up and win this tournament, or else it will be the punch just before the knock-out blow and we will bow out early.”
The Cougars’ loss to EWC was a disappointment after topping Northeastern Junior College 86-85 in a heart-pounding win. Beck said that this team has refocused and feels they will be ready.
“They are working very hard. We had a good team meeting and we talked about where we are at, whom supports this team, and that this is more than a basketball game or basketball team,” he said. “The community really gets behind us and there are a lot of kids and people that come to the games to be a part of something. I think that opened their eyes a little bit too why we play and why we are the Cougars. I can see that they are working harder in practice. They are a little bit more focused and they are a little more attentive to things that are going on on the floor.”
WNCC does not have an easy road to the national title. They open up against Lamar on Saturday, a team they split with this season. If they happen to win, they will face the winner of the Western Wyoming and Sheridan College team on Sunday.
WNCC defeated Lamar 73-47 back on Dec. 1 before falling to the Runnin’ Lopes 66-57 on Jan. 15.
“We played pretty well against them at home and they didn’t play well when they were here,” Beck said. “It kind of was the flip-flop in the second game where we didn’t play well and they played extremely well. They are a team that is capable of shooting the three. They are fairly athletic. As they hit shots, they become more and more confident.
“We have to hunker down and give them a lot of ball pressure and make them make plays off the bounce. We have to make sure we rebound it because down at their place we gave up way too many offensive rebounds. We need more guys boxing out.”
WNCC turned its season around after the North Platte game on Feb. 5 when the Knights topped the Cougars 81-60. It was then the team changed to a more ball-hawking defense. Since that defensive change, the team has buckled down.
“For us to do well we need a combination of things to happen and we really need to play good defense,” Beck said. “For the Cougars, our best offensive and best games overall are when we have been playing our best defense. It is about being conscious of some of our rules defensively in our man-to-man. When we stick to that, we are pretty effective. We also need to hit free throws and we need to limit our turnovers.”
Action in the men’s tournament tips off Friday with four first-round games. Laramie County Community College faces Northeast Nebraska at 1 p.m., North Platte Community College faces Trinidad State Junior College at 3 p.m., Casper College faces Dawson Community College at 5 p.m., and Sheridan meets Western Wyoming at 8 p.m.
Saturday’s first-round games include Central Wyoming facing Miles Community College at 1 p.m., Northwest Wyoming meeting Gillette College at 3 p.m., Northeastern Junior College facing McCook at 6 p.m. and WNCC meeting Lamar at 8 p.m.
Quarterfinals are slated for Sunday, semi-finals for Monday and the championship will be Tuesday at 7 p.m.
WNCC games can be heard on KOZY 101.3 or on the web at kozy1013.com. All the games will also be video streamed on the web from the Sheridan College website located at http://www.scgenerals.com/regionix/.
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