The Western Nebraska Community women's and men's basketball will play their last regular season home games Friday night when Lamar Community College comes to Cougar Palace.
The Cougars will then travel to Northeastern Junior College on Saturday for the last regular season game.
Friday's games start at 5:30 p.m. for the women's contest and 7:30 p.m. for the men's contest. It will also be sophomore recognition as the sophomores will be recognized in between games.
The sophomores being recognized on the women's side include Helena Kuck, Laura Montiel, Katie Vierra, Nataly Dunka, Adelina Urtane, Carleigh Pszanka, and student manager Pedro Presidio. Men's sophomores to be recognized include Elijah Burney, Elijah Hollins, and Mathiang Maker.
The contests are important for many reasons as the teams prepare for the Region IX tournament. The women already won the South Sub-region and will host regionals March 13-15, but the Cougars want to keep winning to go into regionals on a bright spot. For Lamar women, they are 4-5 in the sub-region and are tied with Trinidad State.
The last time the two teams played back on February 8, WNCC won 93-60. WNCC is 22-5 on the season and 8-0 in the sub-region. The Cougars want to keep climbing the national polls as they are No. 20 this week.
The men's contest with Lamar has a little bit more on the line. Lamar leads the sub-region with a 7-4 record and has just one game left to play – Friday night at WNCC. WNCC is in a 3-way tie for second at 6-4 along with North Platte and Trinidad State. If WNCC wins, they would vault to the top of the standings with just one game left to play.
North Platte has two games left, Friday against Otero and Saturday against Trinidad State. Trinidad State will also play McCook on Friday. So, what it comes down to is if Lamar wins, then the top-seed for regionals is set. A loss and it could be anyone's game.
The regional tournament for the men's contest will likely be in Gillette, Wyoming, who the Pronghorns are 10-1 on the season while Casper is 8-2. Gillette has just one sub-region game left and that is at Central Wyoming College. Casper is at home for two games this weekend against Laramie County and Eastern Wyoming.
On the men's side, the top seed of the North and South get first-round byes into the regional tournament. The other teams will play a first-round contest next weekend with the three higher seeds hosting the playoff games. So, if WNCC would drop both games, they were drop to 6-6 and more than likely have to travel for a first-round contest. At least one win would probably give them a home playoff spot.