by Jared Grafenauer
Horizon Reporter
With the start of spring comes the end of two things: Winter and basketball.
This past weekend, Whatcom Community College’s basketball season came to an end in the NWAACC post-season tournament.
The men’s team took 8th out of the 16 teams in the tournament. “It didn’t go as well as we wanted it to go,” said head coach Chris Scrimsher. “Nevertheless it went well.” Although they took 8th of 16 teams, that was just the teams that made the tournament. Overall there were 36 teams in the conference, so they placed 8th out of 36 teams.
After losing the first game of the tournament in overtime to number 1 ranked team in the east, the men’s team rallied to win their next two games. After losing starter Evan Coulter to a broken nose in the third game, they ended up losing their fourth and final game of the tournament.
However, that first game could have been the gateway to success in the tournament, “Who knows?” said Scrimsher. “It is really easy to sit back and say what would have or should have been. We played hard for all four days. I was proud of the way the team played, they represented Whatcom Community College very well.”
“I don’t think the season can be rated any other thing than a positive,” said Scrimsher. “A lot of times people determine success by wins and losses. For me, its about how many players we can send to the next level.”
By his standards, Scrimsher has succeeded tremendously. Brandon Welch, Jordan Nicholes, and J.B. Pillard have been selected to represent Whatcom in this year’s all-star game. Also, with an impressive effort, Jordan Nicholes made the NWAACC all-tournament team, which only takes ten players out of the 16 teams at the tournament.
Whatcom’s three all-stars, along with Cody Peters and Spencer Elwell are all being recruited by universities.
The Horizon was unable to reach the women’s basketball coach before press time.
