Both Columbus State Cougars basketball teams are preparing for the start of the postseason this weekend in the NJCAA Regionals. While the women’s basketball team is in the midst of a two week layoff, the men’s team took the break from conference action to play a pair of non-conference games.
The men Cougars defeat the Wright Patterson Air Force Base team 105-77 Friday night, and they followed up with an astonishing 143-84 win against Lorain Community College Saturday. The Cougars finished the regular season 24-6 overall and 10-4 in the OCCAC. The Cougars benefited from forfeits this week from Owens and Cincinnati State. Cincinnati State went from being ranked in the top five nationally to being disqualified from the NJCAA Regional Tournament. Also Owens had to forfeit most of their games this season and Columbus State also picked up a win there.
The “kids played well, had fun and we got to play games without having a two week layoff,” head coach Patrick Carlisle said about the wins.
The Cougars will likely end up being the two seed at the weekend tournament hosted by Cuyahoga Community College. The winner will need to win three games to advance to the NJCAA National Tournament later in the month.
The women Cougars on the other hand have been spending time practicing for the NJCAA Regionals in Michigan. The bracket for that tournament was just released. Columbus State will play the Mott Bears Thursday afternoon. Mott participated in the NJCAA National Tournament last season. Mott is 16-12 this season, while Columbus State goes into the game 20-6. If Columbus State wins, they will likely have to face Schoolcraft who is ranked sixth in the country.
Columbus State is a loss away from their season ending. There are eight second year players for the Cougars this season. This class has back to back 20 win seasons.
“There certainly is hunger as most of our team is composed of sophomores and as this may be our final few games left of our b-ball career, we really want to make it to nationals,” Cougar center Kerri Imwalle said. “This is a once in a life time chance opportunity and I know with this year’s team we can achieve that goal of reaching to nationals.”
The majority of the teams who are competing in this regional tournament are from the Michigan Community College Athletic Association. Many of the teams from Ohio’s junior college conference are participating in a tournament at Edison Community College. One of those is conference champion Sinclair.
“Coach (Randy) Crites’ team this year was one of the best shooting teams we faced all year,” Sinclair head coach Jeff Price said. “They had a lot of weapons. Defensively they were very tough to stop. If you focused on one person another would step up and hit some shots on you so it was extremely tough. I feel they have a great chance to against anyone they play against. Michigan teams, Ohio teams whoever. I love (Nyesha) Watson as a player she's a tough kid who knows the game very well, and plays hard every possession.”
Watson is among league leaders in points, steals, and assists.
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