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After a round of play-in games over the weekend, eight teams advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Region IX Men’s Basketball Tournament, which will play out on the Cabre Gym court starting Thursday.
Cabre Gym will be the site of the final three rounds of action, pitting four Region IX North and four Region IX South teams against each other with two bids for the NJCAA Division I Men’s National Basketball Championship in Hutchinson, Kan., up for grabs.
The North’s top seed, Northwest College (27-4, 13-1 Region IX North), defeated the North’s No. 8-seeded Little Big Horn College 104-74 Saturday in Powell, and enters Thursday’s quarterfinal round as the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. The Trappers are ranked 15th nationally and will face Western Nebraska Community College at 7 p.m. Thursday night.
If NWC wins, they will face the winner of the North Platte- Central Wyoming matchup at 7 p.m. Friday. The first semifinal matchup will take place at 5 p.m. Friday.
Western Nebraska (13-18, 8-8 Region IX South) scored an overtime victory over Northwest on Nov. 1.
In other quarterfinal action, Gillette College will battle Laramie County Community College at 1 p.m., followed by a bout between Northeastern Junior College and Western Wyoming at 3 p.m. and the North Platte-Central Wyoming at 5 p.m.
Saturday’s championship game will kick off at 7 p.m. Thanks to an extra bid awarded to the region this season, the tournament champion and runners-up will move on to the national tournament, which takes place March 16-21.