March 5, 2008

Final Stats

By Anthony Arroyo Journal-Advocate sports reporter

TORRINGTON, Wyo. -- The Northeastern Junior College men's basketball team is still in the thick of things in the Region IX Tournament, recording two wins to set up a semifinal match up with Western Wyoming today at 6 p.m.

NJC recorded a tough win against Northwest College, 74-66, to open tournament play on Saturday, and squeezed out a 73-71 victory against Casper College Monday to reach the semis.

"We're finding ways to win, but we are not playing very good at all," NJC men's head coach Eddie Trenkle said. "We haven't really clicked at all and we start out slow and have to battle at the end of games."

Northeastern had a 40-29 lead at halftime and opened up a lead as big as 18 points before Northwest finished the second half strong, giving the Plainsmen a scare late in the game.

The team got a big time performance from DeRay Wilson, who had 19 points, four rebounds and three steals in the win Saturday. Alex Garcia-Mendoza added 14 points, while AJ Wilson recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. He would also shoot 9-10 from the free-throw line.

NJC saw its first round opponent drain 12 three-pointers Saturday afternoon, seven of which came in the second half, however, NJC shot 45 percent from the field, nearly 10 percent better than Northwest.

The following game was a dog fight with Casper College, only because its opponent shot the three lights out, draining its first six three-pointers to go up as much as 14 before the Plainsmen battled back to trail just 36-31 at halftime.

Northeastern got things going in the second half, but didn't see its first lead of the game until six minutes were left in the contest. The Plainsmen advanced the margin to six points, but slowly started to see it shrink as the team missed free throws down the stretch.

NJC would actually get three straight possessions of offensive rebounds in the last minute of the game from missed free throws that were tapped out. Leading by two off an intentional missed free throw from DeRay Wilson, Casper College never got a final shot off.

DeRay Wilson had 16 points to lead the Plainsmen, 14 of which came in the first half. Garcia-Mendoza also had 14 (8-8 from the line), and AJ Wilson finished with 12 points and nine rebounds in the win.

Both Wilsons and Garcia-Mendoza have stepped up in the regional tournament, but the team will need more if it expects to run the table.

"We are going to need to step up to beat Western Wyoming," Trenkle said. "They are a hard-nose team that does a lot of things right and can score a lot of points at will."

Western Wyoming defeated Northeast College 71-52 in the first round and out-ran Sheridan College to a 93-83 victory Monday. The winner of this contest will face the winner of Trinidad/Eastern Wyoming Wednesday, at 7 p.m.