SLCC Bruins one step from NJCAA Tournament

Whether or not it intended to do so, SLCC set the bar high when it advanced to the NJCAA title game last season.

Bruin fans have come to expect they will see similar postseason success this time around. Longtime SLCC coach Norm Parrish admitted it isn't always easy to mold such expectations into reality.

"It's really hard to get there," said Parrish, on making the national tournament. "I've been around junior college basketball as a player and a coach now for almost 30 years. There's some teams in this league that haven't gone in those 30 years."

It is a different story for the Bruins. After winning the Region 18 tournament over the weekend, SLCC is on the verge of returning to the site of its greatest success a season ago.

The Bruins defeated College of Eastern Utah 88-78 in the Region 18 championship game on Saturday in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho.

Freshman forward D.J. Wright scored 30 points - matching his season high - to lead SLCC. Sophomore forward Nate Bendall added 28 points - also a season high - and scored 20 of those points during the second half.

Wright earned tournament MVP honors after averaging 28 points per game in both Bruin victories.

Parrish wasn't sure what to expect after losing the bulk of his team that finished as national runner-up the year before. But SLCC has barely skipped a beat in 2008-09 so far. The Bruins have stayed in the NJCAA Top 25 poll all season and have been ranked every week over the past two seasons.

"We had to reload," Parrish said. "It's not like we had a lot of kids back from last year. They've done well. Hopefully, they're not satisfied."

SLCC (26-6) will now face Region 1 champion Arizona Western College (26-5) in the District 1 Championship game on Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. The district championship game winner will secure an automatic berth in the NJCAA National Tournament, which will be held March 17-21 in Hutchinson, Kan.

LIVING ON THE EDGE Westminster has reached the championship game of the Frontier Conference men's basketball tournament for the second time in three seasons. But the Griffins needed to survive a pair of heart-stopping finishes to get there.

Montana Tech nearly played spoiler against the top-seeded Griffins in the first round. The eighth-seeded Orediggers rallied from a eight point halftime deficit and 6th ranked Westminster escaped with a 71-69 victory when Brain Davidson missed a go-ahead 3-pointer and Jeramie Hopson wrapped up the ball at the buzzer.