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MCC women ready to surprise at region tournament
The McCook Community College women's basketball team doesn't have the most shining season record entering the Region IX Tournament.
That won't stop head coach Benjamin Smith and his squad from seeking success at the tough post-season tournament.
The Region IX women's tournament was scheduled to open a five-day run Friday, March 5, at the Jackson and Edwards Arena on the Northeastern Junior College campus in Sterling, Colo. Four first-round games are scheduled Friday, with four more first-round contests on tap Saturday, March 6.
The MCC women, 14-16, are set to face Miles Community College of Miles, Mont., Saturday at 6 p.m. CST.
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) sanctions region tournaments across the country. Region tournament champions advance to the NJCAA National Championship Tournament at Salina, Kan. March 16-20.
Region IX features 16 two-year colleges from Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.
Four sub-regions
Region IX regular-season competition is divided into four sub-regions. McCook C.C. competes in the East sub-region with Northeast of Norfolk and Western Nebraska C.C. of Scottsbluff.
Tournament seeds are determined by the sub-region standings from the regular season.
The MCC women finished third in the sub-region, while the Miles City, Mont., school was second in the North sub-region.
Friday's first-round tournament games feature top seeds against fourth seeds. Saturday's games feature match-ups of second vs. third seeds.
The McCook-Miles C.C. winner advances to the Region IX quarterfinals Sunday at 6 p.m. CST against Friday's Casper (Wyo.) College-Dawson (Mont.) C.C. winner.
Casper won the Central sub-region, while Dawson finished fourth in the North sub-region.
Coach Smith said the single-elimination, win-or-go-home tournament format should keep each of the 16 women's teams in Sterling focused on their current opponent, with no looking ahead.
"One game at a time absolutely," Smith said. "In post-season play that should be everybody's motto. Even the 1-4 games aren't going to be easy just because everybody knows what's riding on it -- it's the whole season, that's what you play for, to get there. Everybody's going to come out and give it their best effort."
Foreign players lead Miles
Smith has a good scouting report on Saturday's MCC foe. Miles C.C. enters the tournament with 19 wins, and the MCC coach labeled the Montana squad as "a two-pony show" with a pair of foreign players from Europe leading the way.
"One is from Serbia, one from croatia, both are really good players," Smith said. "Both can shoot the three, both can drive on you, both can pass real well, both can shoot it. We've got to really focus our attention on them as far as playmakers go. They've got some kids that will hurt you on the glass. They are a quality team.
"Miles likes to get up and down (run the floor). They're not huge -- they're long and lean, but they're not real big in the post. They are very perimeter oriented, so our defense will have to adjust according."
Miles is led by Sara Plavljanin, who is among the Region IX leaders in several categories. Plavljanin is in the top 15 with a scoring average of 13.6 points per game. She also ranks in the Region IX top 10 in rebounds (7.9 per game), steals (2.5) and assists (3.5). Dina Fritz also averages 10.8 points per contest.
McCook is led by Elie Hiester, 5-7 freshman from Monument, Colo., with an average of 12.8 points per contest. Donell Betts, 5-7 freshman from Ft. Collins, Colo., is averaging 9.9 points per game.
Optimistic MCC coach
Coach Smith is optimistic about his team's chances against Miles.
"I like the match-up for us," he said. "I think they are a quality team. They will give us a good test. If we do what we're capable of doing, I like our odds."
Coach Smith was asked what his team needs to do in order to beat the Montana team Saturday.
"We've got to execute, we've got to take care of the ball, we've got to rebound really well both offensively and defensively," he said. "We've got to come by some buckets because of our execution. We've got to knock down our free throws.
"We're going to have to put points on the board. I think it will take 63 to 65 points to win. I think that will be a winning number, with how we're defending right now. We haven't seen the 60 mark for awhile now, it's been a couple weeks. That will be a real test. We're focusing a lot on seeing the ball go through he hole, getting it out of the net, and just getting a good sense of confidence there.
"I think our defense will be there, I think the execution will be there. It's just finishing those plays off, knocking some threes down and our free throws down, creeping up there in the mid-60s range to get the job done."
Battle-tested MCC team
Coach Smith said his Indians are "battle tested" this season with a tough schedule.
"We played the best of the best in the region -- we didn't shy away from anybody," Smith said. "Our record might not be as good as some of the teams in the tournament, but we've played everybody. We played the top teams and we played them tough a lot of times. We went right down to the wire with them."
Even though the MCC women lost some of those games against the region's top teams this season, Smith said he will draw positives from those games to boost his team's confidence entering the Region IX competition. The MCC coach also said that tough schedule let his team know just what they have to do in order to be successful in the post-season meet, instead of winning easy games against inferior competition to develop a false sense of confidence.
"We want to know exactly where we're at, to have those measuring sticks coming into this time of the season," Smith said. "It's laid out for us. The girls really know, they have a good sense of what needs to be done, I think we'll go and take care of business."
The McCook squad planned to depart for Sterling, Colo. early Friday morning. Smith said the Indians plans to watch the Casper-Dawson first-round game Friday.
"It's not that we're looking ahead, it's just to be a little bit more extra prepared," Smith said, in case his MCC women can advance to the quarterfinals.