Casper College men's basketball hopes to take advantage of home court at Region IX tourney

Nearly seven weeks ago, the men's basketball team not only lost its Region IX North opener at Northwest College, but the Thunderbirds would be forced to play the remainder of the season without leading scorer Kenard Richardson and assistant coach Carlos Taylor. Both Richardson and Taylor were suspended from the team after separate post-game incidents following the Jan. 21 game.

This weekend, however, the T-Birds will host the Region IX Tournament for the first time in more than 10 years after winning the North sub-region. The T-Birds face Otero Junior College, the South No. 6 seed, on Thursday at Swede Erickson Thunderbird Gym. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

"It’s another accomplishment for these guys," fourth-year head coach Shaun Gutting said. "We started the season with this as one of our goals and we got it done. Now we have to take advantage of the gift that we’ve been given by the basketball gods. We get to host and possibly cut down some nets in our own gym."

After the loss at Northwest, the T-Birds (22-7, 7-3 North) went on a seven-game winning streak to take over the top spot in the sub-region. They maintained their standing despite losing their final two regular-season games.

Gutting believes his team, which hasn't played since a 101-99 loss at Eastern Wyoming College on Feb 27, will be ready for the weekend.

"I think our personality is more of a back-against-the-wall, proving ourselves group of guys as opposed to being comfortable," he said. "And I think we got comfortable last week and that’s why we struggled in both those games. Now we’re not relying on anybody else, we just have to win games."

Without Richardson, who was averaging 19.8 points per game, the T-Birds have been winning with contributions throughout the lineup.

Jamison Epps leads the team with 16.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-6 sophomore guard, who scored a career-high 47 points on 19-of-26 shooting in the loss at Eastern Wyoming, was named the Region IX North player of the year earlier this week.

In addition, Dalton Peterson, a sophomore guard from Encampment, averages 14.2 ppg; sophomore guard Jaren Harris averages 14.2 ppg; and sophomore big man Nestor Dyachok chips in 10.3 ppg. Freshman guard Darius Robinson is averaging 14.0 ppg off the bench the last five games. Harris garnered second-team all-North honors while Peterson was an honorable mention selection.

The T-Birds are three games away from winning the Region IX Tournament for the first time in four years and only the second time since 1996.

"This is what we’ve been working for all year," Dyachok said. "We just have to put the distractions away, focus on us playing together and remember that when we play together we win together.

"It’s very easy, especially in JUCO, to get distracted by where you’re going to go next year. People start to get a little selfish, and that’s what dropped us."

Otero (14-16) upset South No. 3 seed McCook Community College to qualify for the eight-team field. If Casper College wins it will play the winner between South No. 2 seed Western Nebraska Community College and North No. 3 seed Laramie County Community College on Friday.

On the other side of the bracket, North No. 2 Northwest takes on South No. 5 Lamar Community College and South No. 1 Trinidad State faces North No. 5 Western Wyoming Community College.

"I think these guys are excited to play again instead of just dealing with the grind of the season," Gutting noted. "We needed that break. Now it’s just a matter of knocking the rust off and being ready to play against a team that’s already played a game.

"But we don’t have to worry about the travel and being in a gym we don’t know. And we know most of the fans in the gym are going to be cheering for us and that’s a good thing."