Posted: Feb 26, 2024
1-1 Week Leads to Men's Basketball Securing Home Region Game
The CWC Men's Basketball team split two home games last week knocking them out of the Region IX North title contention. Though the split did secure the overall third seed heading into the Region IX tournament starting on Saturday, March 9. The Rustlers are guaranteed to host a home play-in game with the opponent to be determined after this week of games.
On Thursday, the Mustangs from Western Wyoming were the opponent, a team that beat CWC earlier in the season, this time around the outcome went in CWC's favor, winning 96-91. Four of five starters scored in double figures. The highlight of the game came from Jayden Warren, who threw up a shot from 70 feet before the halftime buzzer; knocking it down giving the Rustlers all the momentum heading into the second half of play. "Jay's shot was huge for us. Western was rolling before halftime and his shot took all of their mojo away. We came out in the second half, built a double digit lead, and never relinquished it." commented Coach Schmit on the impact of Warren's shot.
Saturday the Casper College T-Birds made the short trip to CWC for a battle for second place in the region. Both teams entered the contest with 7 wins in region play, with CWC taking the first game against the T-Birds, 79-77. For the first 5 minutes of the game CWC came out on fire taking a quick 14-5 lead. Unfortunately all it did was wake up Casper who proceeded to go on a 23-2 run taking a 16-28 advantage. For the remainder of the contest that is where the lead hovered. CWC had multiple chances to come back in the second half. Down 66-73 with 7:00 minutes to play, the Rustlers had four chances to score resulting in zero points. "The lack of play making during this stretch was our eventual downfall. Props to Casper. They had a great game plan for us, were motivated to beat us after our first game, and took it to us physically." quoted Coach Schmit. CWC's offensive production came from two sophomores, Julian Roberts going off for 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists, while Lorence Dela Cruz totaled 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists.