The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team earned a last-second first-round win over North Platte Community Saturday 87-86 that moved them to the bracket play of the men's Region IX tournament that begins Thursday in Casper, Wyoming.
The Cougar men, who have a 16-14 overall record, earned the second seed from the South Sub-region with a 6-6 record. WNCC will face the North third seed Laramie County Community College at 5 p.m. Thursday. LCCC earned a trip to the tournament with a first-round 101-66 win over Eastern Wyoming College on Saturday.
Other men's games on Thursday in the quarterfinals include Northwest College facing Lamar Community College at 1 p.m., Trinidad State College taking on Western Wyoming Community College at 3 p.m., and Casper College facing Otero College at 7 p.m.
The semifinals are slated for Friday at 5 and 7 p.m. with the championship game set for Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner earns the automatic berth into the national tournament set for March 15-22 in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Like WNCC, the other teams that moved into the bracket play had to win first-round games over the weekend. Those first-round games saw Lamar top Northeastern Junior College 66-63, Otero top McCook 104-77, and Western Wyoming take out Central Wyoming 80-74.
Carl Thorpe, who leads the team at 13.9 points per game, said the team is ready to fight for a regional title. The last time the Cougars won regionals was in 2018.
"We just have to play to the best of our ability," Thorpe said. "That means looking at film and taking notes."
The Cougars' road will not be easy but any road to a regional title won't be easy for any team. The Cougars face a LCCC team they have lost to twice, 85-79 in overtime at Cougar Palace and 77-59 in February in Cheyenne, so the Cougars are hoping the third time is the charm.
Thorpe knows that LCCC is a good team and they have to take care of business.
"They are pretty good and we know that. They beat us twice already so we do have to make a couple adjustments," Thorpe said.
The one thing that has been the Cougar's downfall in the losses this year is not playing a full game. The Cougars have not played well in 10 to 12-minute spurts and that is something that Thorpe said they cannot do at regionals.
"It is very important to play for 40 minutes," he said. "That is something that coach has been preaching to us since the season started. We have come really close a couple of times, but it has never been a full 40 minutes. If we could play a full 40 minutes, we could win the tournament."
The win on Saturday against North Platte was a contest in which the team showed a lot of fight. The Cougars trailed early 14-2 and trailed at halftime 49-46. The second half saw the Cougars hold a 10-point lead before they lost it and trailed 77-71 with about three minutes to play. WNCC regrouped, played focused and Biko Johnson hit two free throws with 1.1 seconds to play for the 87-86 win to move the Cougars onward in the tournament.
"That game (on Saturday) was huge," Thorpe said. "That game showed us how we continued to stick together as a team."
WNCC put together their 16 wins with plenty of people chipping in throughout the season. The Cougars only have two players averaging in double figures as Thorpe leads at 13.9 points followed by Biko Johnson at 13.4 points. Right after those two is Daniel Bula at 9.6 points followed by CJ Johnson at 7.9, Maurice Walker at 7.1, and then Zach O'Callaghan and Stephen Ovia at 6.3 and 6.2 points.
Laramie County comes in at 16-11 on the season. The Golden Eagles have four players averaging double figures with Xavier McCord leading the way at 18.3 points followed by Tristan Starks at 16.4, Brandon Tchouya at 12.9, and Jordan Reed at 10 points. Ben Hageman is right behind at 8.8 points a contest.
If WNCC can get that win in the quarterfinals, they will then face the winner of the Casper and Otero game. Casper, who one the North, and Trinidad State, who won the South, received first-round byes along with the North second seed Northwest College.
The games can be watched on the Casper College Athletic's Youtube page if someone can't make it to Casper, Wyoming, to watch the games in person.
Region IX Men's Tourney Schedule
Thursday, March 9
1 p.m. -- Northwest vs. Lamar
3 p.m. -- Trinidad vs. Western Wyoming
5 p.m. – WNCC vs. LCCC
7 p.m. – Casper vs. Otero
Friday, March 10
5 p.m. -- Northwest/Lamar vs. Trinidad/WWCC winners
7 p.m. – WNCC/LCCC vs. Casper/Otero winners
Saturday, March 11
7 p.m. – Region IX Championship