The Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's basketball teams will get back into action this weekend with Region IX South contests on the road.
The two Cougar teams open second semester play Friday when they travel to Northeastern Junior College with the women's game starting at 5:30 p.m. The Cougars will finish off the weekend trip when they travel to Lamar Community College on Saturday, beginning at 2 p.m.
The WNCC women look to stay on top the South standings. WNCC is 2-0 and 12-2 overall. NJC is 1-1 in South play and 5-8 overall. Lamar enters with a 0-1 conference record and 4-10 overall.
The contests won't be easy ones, however. WNCC and NJC always have battles and the Plainswomen are coming off a 62-49 defeat to Colorado Northwestern on Wednesday.
The Cougar women come into the contest as one of the region's top defensive teams, allowing just 652 points, 46.57 points a game.
WNCC also ranks 30th in scoring offense in the nation, averaging 78.7 points a game. McCook (85.9), Lamar (86.8) and Sheridan (82.1) are Region IX teams ranked higher than WNCC.
The Plainswomen enter with a tough defense themselves, giving up 66.6 points a game. The Plainswomen have had trouble scoring this season, however, coming in at 56.7 points a game.
Saturday's contests could be high scoring as Lamar has given up over 1,200 points on offense and defense in 14 contests. The Runnin' Lopes are scoring 86.8 points a game, seventh in the nation, but at the same time, Lamar is allowing 91.5 points a game.
The WNCC have balanced scoring this season with just two players averaging double figures. Zeynep Canbaz is scoring at 11.2 points a game followed by Sladjana Rakovic at 10.3 points. WNCC has seven players that are averaging six points or more a game this season. Kalli Feddersen is at 8.1 points followed by Bree Paulson at 7.6, Oleida DeLeon at 6.9, Myram Garcia and Ozge Yarga at 6.3, and Mikayla Gonzales and Luize Skrastina at 6.0 points.
A bit key for the Cougar women's games this weekend is shooting. WNCC is connecting on 41.3 percent from the field and 31.7 from beyond the arc. Three-point shooting hasn't been a strength for the team this season, connecting on just 58 treys. Rylee Ward leads the team with 11 treys followed by Canbaz and Yarga with 10 each.
What wins games for the Cougars is defense and that is where they excel. WNCC is allowing just 28.8 shooting from their opponents this season. The Cougars have also out-rebounded their opponents 570-466 and picked off 201 steals. Most of the stealing comes from Canbaz with 37 followed by Feddersen with 33. Rakovic has also had 26 steals.
While the women will be looking to stay on top of the regional standings, the Cougar men look to stay among the leaders. The men's South standings have a logjam with four teams have 2-2 marks in the conference. Otero leads the standings with a 4-0 mark followed by McCook at 3-1. After that, Laramie County, NJC, Trinidad, and North Platte are at 2-2 and WNCC is right behind at 2-3.
WNCC enters the weekend with a sparkling 10-5 mark and one of the top scoring teams in the South, averaging 86 points a game.
The Cougar men, after dropping its first three South contests, bounced back with big wins over North Platte (84-77) and previously unbeaten McCook 98-78.
Both opponents this weekend are looking to start winning streaks themselves. NJC is coming off a 100-94 loss to Otero on Dec. 12, while Lamar dropped its last two, falling to McCook 99-84 on Dec. 4 and North Platte 73-66 on Dec. 5. Lamar returns to action Friday when they host Eastern Wyoming College.
The Cougar men's first semester saw a balanced performance with four players averaging double figures. Phil Fayne led the team with a 12.1 scoring average followed by Tyrell Williams at 11.6 points. Chase Mason and Andrew Ramirez followed with 10 point averages.
WNCC also received 7.5 points from Michael Sparks and 7.2 points from RJ Palmer, while Mason Smith netted 6.7 points.
WNCC scoring potential comes from a variety of areas as they are shooting at a 49.2 percent clip while making 36.8 percent of their 3-point shots. The Cougars have connected on 96 treys so far this season, led by Mason with 24 and Ramirez with 18.
After this weekend, both teams will travel to Eastern Wyoming College on Thursday. The Cougar men will head to Dawson on Saturday, Jan. 16, while the women host Otero on Friday at 7 p.m.