Dec. 12, 2007

Final Stats

The Northeastern Junior College (NJC) Plainsmen rolled into the Salt Lake City, Utah, Tournament last weekend with a 12-0 record and ranked fourth in the nation.

When the tournament concluded NJC had suffered its first two losses of the season and dropped to 15th in the nation this week.

The Plainsmen opened the tournament Thursday against 19th ranked North Idaho College and lost by an 87-81 score. NJC jumped out to a 17-4 lead early in the first half, but could not hold on as North Idaho came back in the final 20 minutes to hand the Plainsmen their first loss of the season.

On Friday NJC got back on the winning track with a 91-70 victory over Colorado Northwestern College. But on Saturday the Plainsmen faced eighth ranked Salt Lake City Community College and fell by an 82-61 score.

NJC does close out the 2007 portion of its schedule with a 13-2 mark, but Coach Eddie Trenkle would liked to have seen a better performance by his team in the Salt Lake City Classic.

"The teams we faced played hard, knocked down their shots and did the things they needed to do to beat us," he said. "I think we went into the tournament thinking the other teams would roll over. But they played to win, and we didn't.

"Against North Idaho we got out to a big lead and in the second half they came back and handed it to us. I think that our kids thought they would roll over in the second half, but they didn't and it was a learning experience for us."

NJC did re-group on Friday to get the win over Colorado Northwestern by 21 points.

"Nothing against Colorado Northwestern, but they were a team that we should have beat worse than we did," Trenkle said. "We didn't play hard, and they did."

That style of play could have carried over into the finale on Saturday as the Plainsmen fell to Salt Lake City Community College.

"Salt Lake made us look bad," Trenkle pointed out. "We found out that we have to grow up and that we are too content on pointing fingers at each other on individual mistakes. The players can't handle criticism from each other or the coaching staff. If that doesn't change we could lose six out of the next seven games we play, counting the ones we just played."

In Thursday's game against North Idaho, sophomore Jeron Lewis scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead NJC in both categories. Sophomore Troy Smith followed with 16 points and 8 rebounds, freshman Alex Garcia netted 15 points, sophomores Mike Dominguez and Lawrence Tyson 9 each, sophomore DeRay Wilson 8 and freshman A.J. Wilson 4. In Friday's win over Colorado Northwestern, A.J. Wilson led with 20 points, Lewis and DeRay Wilson 15 each, Dominguez 12, sophomore Eric Miller 11, Smith and Tyson 8 each and freshman DeMario Partee 2.

A.J. Wilson grabbed 15 rebounds and DeRay Wilson handed out 7 assists. In the finale Saturday against Salt Lake City, Smith scored 17 points, DeRay Wilson 16, Dominguez 9, Garcia 8, Tyson 5 and 2 each for Lewis, A.J. Wilson and sophomore Kylor Dossett. Smith and Miller each had 7 rebounds.

NJC will take a month off before returning to action Mon., Jan. 7 at home against Frank Phillips, Tex., Community College.

"There are some things the kids need to work on during the break," Trenkle said. "First they have to work on getting along. We're not one of those teams that fight and argue with each other, but we can't accept criticism from other teammates. "You have to be able to handle that. Last year's team did and so do other teams that are successful. But I knew that this group of kids would have learning experiences, and we had a big target on our backs by being ranked fourth in the nation going to Salt Lake City. I don't think the kids understood that then, but I think they do now."

Trenkle is confident the Plainsmen will come back from the holiday break ready to play.

"This team will bounce back," he predicted. "We have a bunch of new players who have never tasted success like this, and it's a different thing for them.

"All of these kids want to win. We just have to remember what got us to being ranked fourth in the nation. We were humbled after our performance over the weekend, but it was a great learning experience and we should use it that way."

Trenkle pointed out that his team also crammed all 15 games into a short period of time, including hosting three tournaments, traveling for two other tournaments and playing three more road games.

"This year we stacked 15 games in just a little over a month, and that's part of the reason why we have looked so lackluster at times," he said. "We haven't had many days off since we started practicing in October and the kids are tired.

"When we get back from the break we'll be playing two games a week, which is where we should be." After the Jan. 7 game against Frank Phillips, NJC will turn right around on Tues., Jan. 8 to host North Platte, Neb. Community College.