Junior college basketball: Wranglers hope to bounce back quickly

The Odessa College Wranglers open postseason play at 5 p.m. today when they take on McLennan Community College in the first round of the NJCAA Region 5 Tournament.

The eighth-ranked Wranglers (26-4) bid for their first trip to the NJCAA National Championships since 2001 this weekend at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Mayborn Center in Belton.

Odessa College shared the Western Junior College Athletic Conference championship with Midland College and earned the conference’s No. 1 seed for the regional tournament, but OC coach Dennis Helms said any of the eight qualifiers from the WJCAC and North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference could move on to the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kan.

“There’s not a big difference in any of the four teams in the west and there’s not a big difference in the four teams in the north,” Helms said. “So being first seed is no great bonus.”

The Highlanders (22-8) finished fourth in the NTJCAC, winning five of their last six games.

“They’ve got a good team,” Helms said. “They’ve got a quick point guard (Tray Carmouche) out of Houston. They’ve got (guard Catrell Currie), who was rated in the top 80 players in the state of Texas out of Terrell; he was at Howard. They’ve got an all-conference player (guard Walt Harris) back from a year ago. (Forward Flavio Milam) is a good 4 man and their center (Jordan Glynn) is very active and can score.

“They can pose some problems because they’re athletic. They’re like Western Texas, except they push it a little bit more.”

Today’s winner takes on the winner between Howard College and Temple College at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The championship game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.

The Wranglers won 14 in a row and rose to No. 5 in the national rankings before losing two of their last three. That included a 73-71 overtime loss at Western Texas College last Thursday in the regular-season finale.

“We kind of slacked off the last couple of games and Coach (Helms) is kind of worried about that, but I don’t it’s going to affect us going into regional,” said OC guard Jamel Guyton, who leads the team with 18.1 points per game. “Whenever challenges come, we step up.”

Point guard Delrico Lane, who averages 9.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists, said the Wranglers aren’t content with what’s already been done this season.

“It feels great to know that we’re going to regional, that we qualified and are seeded No. 1 coming off of last year when we didn’t make regional,” he said. “As far as an accomplishment, it’s good, but we can’t be satisfied. We’re looking forward to hopefully bringing home a regional championship and going to nationals.”

Helms said this season’s Wranglers, who beat South Plains College and Midland College when both were ranked in the top five, have enjoyed more success than OC’s most recent regional team in 2006.

“We’ve won big ballgames where they didn’t,” he said. “When we were in a close ballgame two years ago, we’d find a way to lose. This team finds a way to win.”

>> NJCAA Region V Championship

At University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton

Thursday’s Games

Men’s First Round

Game 1 — Midland College vs Collin County, 12:30 p.m.

Game 2 — Weatherford vs South Plains, 2:30 p.m.

Game 3 — Odessa College vs McLennan, 5 p.m.

Game 4 — Temple vs Howard, 7 p.m.

Friday’s Games

Women’s First Round

Game 5 — McLennan vs Howard, 12:30 p.m.

Game 6 — South Plains vs Collin County, 2:30 p.m.

Game 7 — Midland College vs Temple, 5 p.m.

Game 8 — Weatherford vs Western Texas, 7 p.m.

Saturday’s Games

Men’s Semifinals

Game 9 — Game 1 winner vs Game 2 winner, 12:30 p.m.

Game 10 — Game 3 winner vs Game 4 winner, 2:30 p.m.

Women’s Semifinals

Game 11 — Game 5 winner vs Game 6 winner, 5 p.m.

Game 12 — Game 7 winner vs Game 8 winner, 7 p.m.

Sunday’s Games

Men’s Final

Game 13 — Game 9 winner vs Game 10 winner, 2 p.m.

Women’s Final

Game 14 — Game 11 winner vs Game 12 winner, 5 p.m.