The Western Nebraska Community College women's basketball has a goal in store for the Region IX tournament that kicks off Thursday in Casper, Wyoming, and that is bring home the championship trophy.
WNCC, 26-1, enter the tournament as the 4th-ranked team in the nation. But one thing that has eluded the Cougars in their six straight trips to the national tournament is a regional title. WNCC has won only two Region IX titles during that span in 2017 and 2019. The other three regionals, the title slipped through their hands. The Cougars lost to Casper in 2018 and 2020, and a year ago, lost to Casper in the semifinals as Otero won the regional title over Casper.
This year winning regionals is the team's goal.
"Our goal is the same every year; our goal is to win the regional tournament," WNCC head coach Chad Gibney said. "It is extremely difficult to win a regional championship. You have to win three games in three days against three really good teams. We have a tall task in front of us going on the road. It is extremely difficult to win when you are on the road."
WNCC's trek to a regional title will begin Thursday at 2:30 p.m. when they face Northwest College in the quarter finals. A win Thursday will move the Cougars into the semifinals on Friday at 4 p.m. against the winner of the McCook Community College and Eastern Wyoming College game. That quarterfinal tile will be played Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
The other side of the bracket will have Laramie County Community College facing Trinidad State College Thursday at 5:30 p.m. followed by Casper College against Otero College at 7:30 p.m. Those two winners will face each other in the semifinals Friday at 6 p.m.
The finals are slated for Saturday at 4 p.m. with the winner advancing to the NJCAA National Tournament in Lubbock, Texas, March 14-19.
Four teams earned first-round byes into the quarterfinals. They included No. 1 seeds WNCC from the South and Casper from the North, along with No. 2 seeds Eastern Wyoming from the North and Trinidad State from the South.
The other teams had to play a first-round play-in game this past weekend. Those first-round playoff games saw games on Saturday with McCook topping Lamar 55-43, LCCC defeating Western Wyoming 70-45, and Northwest beating Central Wyoming 70-49. Sunday's first-round contest saw Otero defeat Northeastern 72-63.
As the fourth-ranked team in the nation, even a loss could send the Cougars to the national tournament as an at-large team. Last year at the national tournament, Region IX sent three schools to nationals as Otero earned the automatic berth and Casper and WNCC earned at-large berths.
The Cougars trip at nationals as an at-large team was one of epic portions as WNCC sent waves of excitement through the JUCO basketball world as they had one of their best showings in going 2-1. WNCC opened the tournament with a 79-70 win over Iowa Western Community College in the first-round. WNCC then shock up the tournament as they surprised No. 1 seed and unbeaten Jones College 63-60 in the next round. WNCC finished the tournament falling in their third game to Three Rivers Community College 79-71.
This team has goals to make it farther this year if they get there.
"We are a confident group and we had goals all year to win a region championship and go to the national tournament and compete for a national championship," Gibney, who is in his sixth year as head coach of the Cougar women, said. "There are a lot of goals that this group has, but the first one is to win a regional championship."
But, first, they have to worry about the regional tournament and that is their number one priority.
"Right now we are focused on Northwest Thursday and then we will shift attention to the winner of Eastern Wyoming and McCook," Gibney said.
WNCC has faced Northwest College twice this season when they defeated the Trappers 83-62 to open the season in November and then followed that up with a 107-54 win the week after.
WNCC is also 2-0 against the two potential semifinal opponents. WNCC defeated EWC 81-55 at Cougar Palace in November and then topped the Lancers 81-60 at Torrington. WNCC is also 2-0 against McCook, defeating the Indians 97-63 at WNCC in January and then handing McCook an 83-57 defeat on the road.
"Northwest College has had a great year," Gibney said. "They have done a tremendous job. Coach Davis has done a great job and they play really hard. They are physical and do a lot of things right. I am very impressed with Northwest watching them on film."
WNCC enters the tournament with a lot of firepower as they have four players averaging double figures including two players that were NJCAA All-America a year ago. Ale'Jah Douglas is leading the team at 18.4 points a contest followed by Amani Brown at 12 points. Both players were All-American a year ago, Douglas at WNCC and Brown at Vincennes University.
Also hitting double digits is Martrice Brooks at 11 points and Aminata Zie and Shanti Henry at 10 points a contest.
WNCC is shooting 45 percent from the field and 31 percent from beyond the arc. The Cougars have buried 206 3-pointers on the season, led by Henry with 53 long-range shots. Brown has made 34, Douglas 32, Shayane Poirot made 24, Payton Fields 23, and Ashley Panem 18.
Gibney said it would mean a lot to this team if they can bring that Region IX trophy back to WNCC for the first time since 2019.
"It would be huge [to win a regional title} and that has been our first goal all year long," Gibney said. "We want to make sure we hit that goal and there is something to be said about being a champion."