The post-season for Region IX basketball is upon us with several area teams playing first-round games this weekend while others have a first round bye into next week's Region IX tournament.
The men's Region IX tournament will be held at Otero Junior College March 3-5 after Otero won the South sub-region. The women's Region IX tournament will be held the same days at Casper College after the Thunderbirds won the North sub-region.
The 4th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball team have a first-round bye entering the tournament after winning the South Sub-region with a 10-0 record. The Cougars are 26-1 entering the tournament will won't play until Thursday, March 3 at 2:30 p.m. against the winner of this weekend's Northwest College and Central Wyoming College game.
The Cougar men, who fell to North Platte Community College on Tuesday, enter tournament play with a first-round contest on Saturday against Lamar Community College at Lamar, Colorado. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. The winner advances to the tournament portion of the bracket while the loser has their season come to an end.
Carter Brown, who had 22 points in the loss against North Platte, said the team is ready as it is a new season. All the teams are 0-0 right now so they just need to go out there and play with nothing to look back on.
"We just have to be us," Brown said. "We have to be us to the highest of our capabilities. When we play like the way we are capable of playing and we play to our potential, we are a tough team to beat. I think a lot of people know that. All it takes is one game to get going if we find that and lock into what we do, then we will be more than fine."
Other first-round games Saturday on the men's side will pit McCook Community College at North Platte Community College at 3:30 p.m., Northeastern Junior College at Trinidad State College at 6 p.m., Northwest College at Eastern Wyoming College at 2 p.m., and Central Wyoming at Casper College at 3 p.m.
Otero, Western Wyoming Community College, and Laramie County Community College received byes into the tournament.
Brown said this Cougar team, which finished the season at 15-13 can win it if they don't have those minutes of laurels and allow teams to get short runs of points.
"Even with that North Platte game on Tuesday, there was a stretch in the second half that we got it to where we needed and then there was a stretch right after that we allowed them to get it (the lead) back to where it was," Brown said. "That has been the story all season is having those up and down stretches. We just have to get more consistent."
The positive side of Otero hosting the Region IX tournament is that last time the Cougars won the Region IX tournament in 2018, Otero was the host. There are other similarities, too, between this year's team and that 2018 team. In 2018, WNCC had to beat McCook Community College in the first round, which they did 116-61.
After that, WNCC topped Central Wyoming College 77-67 and then Sheridan College 99-87 in the semifinals. WNCC then bested the host team Otero in the championship 99-87.
Brown said anything is possible as long as they don't play like they did in the loss to North Platte on Tuesday.
"That is something that we are consistently showing is that we are playing hard. All of our guys play hard consistently," Brown said. "But we found ourselves in a number of games and a number of stretches where we are too up and down with the shots and the execution on defense is not consistent right now and hoping that we get this win on Saturday against Lamar and that pushes a spark through our guys."
For the seven sophomores – Brown, Agwa Nywesh, Jasiya DeOllos, Turumbil Zaki, Them Koang, Michael Bradley, and Sayo Owolabi – it could be their last game of their Cougar career. All seven do have the option to return for a third year because of the COVID pandemic. But, Brown said that isn't the main thing they are worried about. The main thing right now is the task at hand and that is Lamar Community College.
"I would say the toughest thing for us right now is Lamar on Saturday," Brown said. "I think all seven sophomores' heads are in the right places and minds are on the right things. The only thing we are focused on is playing Lamar on Saturday and everything after that will take care of itself."
The winner of the men's Region IX tournament will qualify for the NJCAA national tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas, March 14-19.
The women's tournament will have four first-round games with four teams earning first-round byes. The four teams earning a bye into the quarter finals included WNCC at 26-1 along with Trinidad State (9-16), Casper (24-4), and Eastern Wyoming College (16-11).
First round games this weekend include three games on Saturday with Lamar traveling to McCook at 2 p.m., Western Wyoming at Laramie County at 2 p.m., and Central Wyoming at Northwest at 2:30 p.m. Sunday contests have Otero traveling to Northeastern for a 2 p.m. contest.
Each of the first-round winners will then face one of the bye teams. The quarter finals will begin March 3 at 12:30 p.m. with EWC facing the winner of the McCook/Lamar game; WNCC taking on either Northwest or Central Wyoming at 2:30 p.m., Trinidad facing the LCCC/Western Wyoming winner at 5:30 p.m., and Casper taking on NJC or Otero at 7:30 p.m.
The semifinals are slated for Friday, March 4 at 4 and 6 p.m. with the finals taking place Saturday, March 5 at 4 p.m.
The winner advances to the NJCAA national tournament in Lubbock, Texas, March 14-19.