The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team are ready to go into the post-season as they aim to get back to the national tournament when they host a first-round Region IX contest this weekend.
WNCC women are just one of several teams that will have first-round games this weekend in the area. The Eastern Wyoming men and women will also have post-season action along with the Laramie County Community College men and women.
The winners of the first-round games will advance to the quarterfinals next week. The women's tournament will be held at Casper College in Casper, Wyoming, March 14-16. The men's contest will be held at WNCC's Cougar Palace as the Cougar men captured the Region IX South with their 11-1 conference record and received the right to host the tournament as well as getting the first-round bye. The men's tournament will take place March 14-16.
The Cougar women, as the No. 3 seed from the South Sub-region, will host No. 7 Trinidad State College on Friday, March 8 at 6 p.m. at Cougar Palace. The Cougar women enter with a 24-6 record while the Trojans are 0-27. The other game on Friday in the South Sub-region will have Lamar traveling to face McCook.
The women's North Sub-region first-round games on Friday will have Laramie County Community College at Eastern Wyoming College at 5:30 p.m. while Northwest College travels to Gillette College at 6 p.m.
North teams that earned a bye include No. 1 seed Casper College and No. 2 seed Western Wyoming Community College, while the South teams with byes include No. 1 seed Northeastern Junior College and No. 2 seed Otero College.
WNCC women's basketball player Gal-La Font said they team is ready to go against Trinidad State, a team that the Cougars defeated on Friday in Trinidad 77-60. The first time the two teams played on January 19, WNCC won 84-54 at Cougar Palace.
Font realizes that they need to be ready and not overlook the contest.
"It is very important to keep the focus in games like this in games that we know we should win," Font said. "We have to keep the focus because we need to get better for the tournament."
The big thing about this game is Trinidad State has nothing to lose and everything to gain in the game. Plus, it is hard to beat a team three times in a season.
"We know they definitely play hard because they haven't had any wins," she said. "But they will do anything they can to get the win. If we just stick to what we have been doing to win, we should be good."
Font said they have been working hard the past couple of weeks and they should be ready to go for the regional first-round and next week's regional tournament.
"We have been working really hard especially this last month so our chances are good to win regionals," she said. "We have one game this week and it should be an easy game, hopefully, and then we will see Western Wyoming in the tournament. We are hoping to put everything together that we have been working on."
If WNCC wins Friday, they will face Western Wyoming on March 14 at 12:30 p.m. Western Wyoming is a team that defeated the Cougars twice this season. Font said they won 24 games this season and lost six, but they learned from those six losses.
"I think we really grew the first semester with the wins and the second semester is when we had most of the losses, but I think we definitely learned from them," she said. "We know we have to keep working and staying at the level we are. And, since we lost to NJC back-to-back, we have been working harder and putting the focus in."
NJC, who is ranked 19th in the latest NJCAA poll, will face the winner of the Northwest/Gillette game in the quarter finals on March 14. The other quarterfinal games will pit the LCCC/EWC winner against Otero and No. 16 Casper facing either the Lamar/McCook winner.
The winner of Region IX will then head to the national tournament, which will March 26-April 1 at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Wyoming.
The Cougar men will be entering the regional tournament on an 1a-game winning streak as they have a 22-8 record. WNCC received votes in the latest NJCAA national poll on Monday. The one thing that might bother the Cougars, though, is they last played February 23 when they defeated Trinidad State, 77-76, to win the sub-region. WNCC was scheduled to face Lamar on February 27, but Lamar had to forfeit the game so that means WNCC will have three weeks off before playing their next game at regionals on March 14.
The men's tournament will kick off Saturday with several first-round contests set at the sites of the higher seeds. Those first-round games with the winners coming to Cougar Palace to join WNCC and Gillette College, the winner of the North who received a bye, will see Eastern Wyoming College traveling to face Casper College, Western Wyoming Community College facing Laramie County Community College, and Northwest College taking on Central Wyoming College in the North Sub-region.
South Sub-region first round contests will have McCook traveling to Northeastern Junior College, Lamar Community College taking on No. 2 seed Trinidad State College, and North Platte Community College taking on Otero College.
The quarterfinals are slated for March 14 in Scottsbluff and those games will pit the winners of Trinidad/Lamar against the Central Wyoming/Northwest winner at 1 p.m.; Gillette taking on the Otero/North Platte winner at 3 p.m.; the Casper/EWC winner facing the NJC/McCook winner at 5 p.m. and then WNCC meeting the LCCC/Western Wyoming winner at 7 p.m.
Semifinals are slated for March 15 with the championship on March 16. The winner will advance to the NJCAA national tournament March 24-20 in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Women's Regional Tournament
First-Round, Friday, March 8
Trinidad at WNCC, 6 p.m.
Northwest at Gillette, 6 p.m.
LCCC at EWC, 5:30 p.m.
Lamar at McCook, 5 p.m.
Men's Regional Tournament
First Round, Saturday, March 9
Lamar at Trinidad State, 2 p.m.
Northwest at Central Wyoming, 2 p.m.
North Platte at Otero, 3 p.m.
EWC at Casper, 4 p.m.
McCook at NJC, 12 p.m.
Western Wyoming at LCCC, 2 p.m.