WNCC summer volleyball camp dates set

Western Nebraska Community College volleyball coach Giovana Melo has set the dates for this summer’s volleyball camps.

                The camps will kick off July 9-10 with the Little Cougars Camp for fourth through sixth grade students. Individual Skills camps will run July 11-12 for girls in the 7^th and 8^th grades, while the Skills Camp for girls in the 9^th through 12^th grade will be Jul 18-19.

                A Setter/Hitter Camp will be held July 16-17 for grades sixth through ninth, while the Setter/Hitter/Libero Camp for girls in the 10^th through 12^th grade will be held Jul 23-24. A team camp will also be held this season on July 27-28.

                Melo also announced that the summer volleyball league for high school varsity and junior varsity teams will begin June 19 and run for six weeks on Tuesdays.

                Camp flyers and costs will be available starting in February. For more information on the camps, contact assistant volleyball coach Fatima Balza at balzafatima@gmail.com.

WNCC softball team holding chili supper on Jan. 14

Western Nebraska Community College softball team will hold an all-you-can-eat chili feed during the men’s and women’s basketball games with Trinidad State Junior College this Saturday, Jan. 14.

The chili supper will start at 12:30 p.m. in the Cougar Den. The cost is $5 and includes chili, dessert and a drink. Tickets can be purchased at the door as well as any Cougar softball player. There will be a raffle for different prizes as well. The Cougar women’s basketball game begins at 1 p.m. followed by the men’s game.

The chili supper is a fundraiser for the softball program. The team captured the Region IX tournament last season and made their third trip to the national tournament in four years. This year’s softball season will open up Feb. 17-18 on the road at Midland, Texas, Classic.

The first home softball game is slated for March 7 against North Platte Community College.

For more information on the chili supper, contact WNCC softball coach Maria Winn-Ratliff at 308-635-6189 or at winnm@wncc.edu.

WNCC men set to return to the court Monday against No. 15 Odessa College

               The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team returned to the practice floor after a three-week break as they prepare for the stretch run of the season.

               The Cougars, who finished the first semester with a sparkling 12-2 record, will kick off the second semester when they face Odessa College on Monday in Odessa, Texas, at 5 p.m.  The contest can be seen on the Internet at http://www.ihigh.com/wncc. The contest was added after the Cougars’ contest with Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture scheduled for Jan. 7 was cancelled.

               "We went out looking for a good game once Technical Agriculture informed us that five guys were ineligible. I wanted to get us in a big game to open our eyes and wake us up to begin the second semester," he said. "This is what we have been playing for to get into our subregion play. Odessa is talented. They are ranked 15h in the country and coached by Coach Helms, who has over 30 years as a head coach. He has sent nine guys to the NBA. They are one of the winningest JUCOs in the country and they have one of the top scorers in the country in Derrick Barden. They are going to present some challenges, but that is exactly what we wanted.

               "We could have just played an all-star game or not played a game at all and just play 29 games in the regular season. But, I wanted to test ourselves. We contacted everybody from Monroe to Salt Lake, Western Wyoming, Gillette, Sheridan, Midland, South Plains. We contacted all these schools and some of them needed games, but they didn't want to play us. We will take that as a compliment, I guess, but I am thankful to Odessa that they allowed us to come down and play them and we hope we play our best."

               Odessa enters the contest ranked No. 15 in the country with a 132-1 record. The Wranglers only defeat came to Collin County Community College 75-68 back on Nov. 18. Since then, Odessa has ran off six straight wins, including a 94-86 over Ranger College in the New Mexico Junior College Classic on Friday.

               Odessa is led by Derrick Barden, the sixth-leading scorer in the nation at 22.333 points a game.                 WNCC should be able to match Odessa's fire power offensively and defensively. Raul Delgado comes into the contest has the 10^th leading scorer in the country with an average of 20.929 points a game. Delgado has netted double figure scoring in all 14 games this season. The sophomore is also 18^th in free throw percentage at 89 percent (34 of 38),

               WNCC's Du[Vaughn Maxwell, Marko Kovacevic and Mike Peltz are also ranked among the leaders in the nation after the first semester. Peltz, an Alliance graduate, is fourth in the country in assists, averaging 7..08 a game. He has dished out 92 assists in the 13 games he saw action in this season.

               Maxwell is 49th in scoring (17.923), 24^th in rebouinding at 10 boards a contest, and 36^th in blocks a game (2.00), while Kovacevic is 32^nd in rebounding at 9.27 a game and 20^th in blocks a game with 2.43 a game.

               This game, however, will be important as they enter subregion play, which includes home subregion contests against Otero Junior College on Friday and Trinidad State Junior College on Saturday afternoon.

               "Friday's game against Otero might be the biggest subregion game of the year in the fact that Otero has shown in the preseason that they are really good. Everybody that has seen them as said they are really talented. They have a core group of sophomore back, similar to us. We only play each other once and if it comes down to a tiebreaker of who may host the regional tournament, this game will be huge. We are hoping that the Odessa game will prepare us mentally and physically to play well next weekend here at  home."

               Beck said that his team will be ready for the battle against another ranked team. He said his players returned from the holiday break in good shape and are anxious to get the second semester underway.

               "Everybody came back in relatively good shape and there has been bright spots," he said. "All the guys are back and we are focused. We want to host the regional tournament and we want to win the region and we want to get to the national tournament. I think those things are within our grasp if we continue to get better. I don't think we have played our best basketball yet, which is encouraging."

WNCC baseball team hold hitting league for boys ages 10-18 beginning Jan. 23

Western Nebraska Community College baseball coach Mike Jones, his staff and players will be hosting a competitive hitting league for five weeks this January and February at their indoor hitting facility at Comm Shop #6, located just south of East Overland on 2nd Avenue in Scottsbluff.

The league is designed for baseball players, ages 10-18, to work on their skills and have some fun competing against their friends. Teams will be comprised of four players each and will play one game per week for five weeks beginning on Monday, Jan. 23 and running through Feb. 20.

The leagues will be limited to 12 teams or 48 players. if you do not have a team you will be placed on one. The cost per player is $50. Instruction and feedback will be given to help make the players better hitters as well.

For more information or to register for the league you may contract Jones at 308-635-6198 or by email at jonesm@wncc.edu. Registration forms can also be downloaded from the Cougar athletic website at sports.wncc.net.

WNCC men defeat Cape Fear C.C. 78-67

                TWIN FALLS, Idaho – The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team picked up the intensity in the second half in racing past a good Cape Fear Community College 78-67 at the Farmer’s Insurance Challenge in Twin Falls, Idaho.

                The win was the Cougar’s 11^th win of the season as four Cougars finished with double figure scoring. Marko Kovacevic, however, finished with a double-double in the contest with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

                WNCC coach Russ Beck said this is a good win against a team that went to the national tournament last year and lost to the No. 2 team in the nation this season.

                “This is a team that went to the national tournament and they have five or six returners on the team,” he said. “So, this is a pretty good win. They are well coached and they have pretty good players. I am glad that our Cougars got the win.”

                Beck said it was the second half that really opened up the contest. WNCC held a slim 38-36 halftime lead and pushed that lead to eight points early on back-to-back 3-pointers by Raul Delgado to start off the half. Cape Fear, who has the third leading scorer in the nation with Emmanuel Andrews, came back to cut the lead to three points at 51-48 before WNCC went on other run.

`“The first half we were a little bit stagnant and we were taking some bad shots even though we held the third leading scorer in the nation to just nine points for the game. We did a good job on zeroing in on him and learned our mistakes from CSI, so we did a better job on their best player,” he said. “in the second half, we came out and ran a little bit of motion and we got a little bit more movement and the shots started to fall.”

                Beck said the second half was a matter of runs and his team had just one more run then Cape Fear.

                “The game is a game of runs and got a couple runs,” he said. “Fortunately we probably had one more run than they did.”

                Raul Delgado paced the team with 22 points, four rebounds, six assists, two blocks and six 3-pointers. Also collecting double-digits was Du’Vaughn Maxwell with 18 points, five rebounds, six assists, and three blocks; Kovacevic with 11 points and five rebounds; and Brady Mason with 10 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

                Shooting was a big difference in the contest. WNCC shot 40 percent from the field in the first half and then blitzed the next for 61 percent shooting in the second half.  The opposite was true for Cape Fear, who shot 47 percent in the first half and then 41 percent in the second half. The big defensive statistic, however, was the Cougar defense did not allow Cape Fear to make a 3-pointer compared to four in the first half.

                WNCC will finish off the CSI Tournament at 3:30 p.m. today when they take on Raleigh Sports Academy. Raleigh lost 105-40 to the College of Southern Idaho in the late game on Friday.

WNCC (11-2)                      38 40 – 78

Cape Fear CC                     36 31 – 67

CAPE FEAR CC

Emmanuel Andrews 9, Terrance Hampton 6, Faronte Drakeford 17, Tim Wilkes 2, EJ Williams 11, Randell Jones 6, Rakeem Wilson 4, Landon Atterberry 12.

WNCC

Tahir Little 3, Du’Vaughn Maxwell 18, Raul Delgado 22, Marko Kovacevic 11, Terrance Motley 8, Brady Mason 10, Mason Smith 2, Marcus Johnson 4.