BCC enters tournament with confidence

Confidence should not be an issue as Brunswick Community College heads into this week’s Carolinas Junior College Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament in Wilmington.

On Monday, the Dolphins wrapped up their best regular season ever with a 121-80 trouncing of Roanoke-Chowan Community College.

Jeremy Basnight tied a school record with eight three-pointers and finished with 26 points Travis Foster had five three-pointers and 19 points. Eight Dolphins scored in double figures.

“It was first place against last place,” said BCC head coach Walter Shaw. “We were able to play everybody and rest our main guys.”

The Dolphins finished 16-3 in the conference will take a 26-4 overall record in the tournament, which runs Thursday through Sunday at Cape Fear Community College’s Schwartz Center.

BCC secured a first-round bye as the North Division champion and will play at 6 p.m. Friday against the winner of Thursday’s contest between Clinton Junior College and Lenoir Community College.

“I think everybody’s confident. Going into the tournament you need as many guys confident as possible because you don’t know who you’ll need,” Shaw said.

“We’ve lost three conference games by a total of seven points. We have no reason not to be confident. We’ve got a chance to be there on Sunday, but in a 14-team tournament anything can happen.”

Sophomore forward Leon Spencer said it will take contributions from everyone on the team for BCC to have a shot at winning the conference championship and advancing to the district tournament.

“We’re feeling very confident right now. We’re playing well as a team. We’ve got to continue to play together, practice hard every day, buy into what Coach is teaching us,” Spencer said.

“We’re not going to underestimate anybody. We’re going to go at everybody just like it’s the championship game. The season’s coming to an end, these are my last games as a Dolphin, so I want to finish on top.”

Sophomore guard C.J. Hailey said he thinks two recent losses have helped the Dolphins to refocus.

“I feel like those couple of losses we had last week boosted the morale of the team and the momentum because we know that we can be beat and we know that we have to go out there and compete every night,” Hailey said.

“I feel like we should be strong in the tournament. I feel like if we stick together as a team we can win the thing.”

BCC usually tries to push the pace and outscore its opponents. The Dolphins average 99 points per game and have hit triple digits 17 times this season.

“We’re 26-0 when we score more than 85 points. We’re 0-4 when we don’t,” Shaw said. “We’re going to do what we have to do to get to that magic number, but if we don’t get there we still have to execute and find a way to win.”

Shaw said one of the keys to playing well in the conference tournament will be putting everything into each game as it comes. The Dolphins also have to continue doing what they do best.

“We’re not going to change what we’ve been doing,” he said. “A lot of people get in a tournament and start changing stuff. People know what we do. We’re going to try to do it.”

CJCC Final Standings

North Division

Team Conf. All

Brunswick 16-3 26-4

Louisburg 15-4 23-6

Cape Fear 14-5 18-9

Guilford 10-9 19-11

Lenoir 4-15 10-15

Rockingham 3-16 9-18

Roanoke-Chowan 2-17 5-21

South Division

Team Conf. All

Aiken 16-3 25-5

Spartanburg 14-5 22-7

USC-Salkehatchie 12-7 13-16

Clinton 8-10 13-15

Wilkes 7-12 10-20

Denmark 5-14 8-18

Surry 5-14 5-22

CJCC Basketball Tournament

at Cape Fear Community College

Thursday, Feb. 28

10 a.m.: Guilford vs. Wilkes

12 p.m.: Louisburg vs. Surry

2 p.m.: USC-Salkehatchie vs. Rockingham

4 p.m.: Clinton vs. Lenoir

6 p.m.: Spartanburg vs. Roanoke-Chowan

6 p.m.: Women No. 6 vs. Women No. 7*

8 p.m.: Cape Fear vs. Denmark

*Play-in game at Ashley High School

Friday, Feb. 29

10 a.m.: Women No. 3 vs. Women No.6/No. 7 winner

12 p.m.: Women No. 4 vs. Women No. 5

2 p.m.: Game 1 winner vs. Aiken

4 p.m.: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner

6 p.m.: Game 4 winner vs. Brunswick

8 p.m.: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner

Saturday, March 1

1 p.m.: Women’s Semifinal

3 p.m.: Women’s Semifinal

5 p.m.: Men’s Semifinal

7 p.m.: Men’s Semifinal

Sunday, March 2

1 p.m.: Women’s Championship

4 p.m.: Men’s Championship