Hello, postseason
The Ranger College men's and women's basketball teams accomplished two important goals on Saturday. First, they ended the 2020-21 regular season on high notes with wins over rival Collin College. More importantly, they secured home-court advantage for the opening round of the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference playoffs.
The Lady Rangers secured third place in the NTJCAC standings with a 71-52 victory over Collin in Plano. The win, which snapped a late 4-game slide by RC, helped Ranger finish the conference race in a tie with Temple College at 10-6. Ranger edged out Temple for the No. 3 playoff seed due to head-to-head tiebreakers.
Now 10-9 overall, the Lady Rangers will kick-off a rare playoff doubleheader in the Ron Butler Gymnasium on Wednesday, March 31, when they face off against McLennan. The game will begin at 5 p.m.
Ranger is 0-2 against McLennan during the season.
The Ranger men grabbed the No. 2 seed in the conference standings with a 76-72 win over Collin. The Rangers completed the regular season with a 15-4 record, including an 11-3 mark in NTJCAC play. They finished one game behind No. 24-ranked Grayson in the conference standings.
Sophomores Keisei Tominaga and Mark Mayle helped RC rally past Collin. Tominaga scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the second half. Mayle pushed in 16, while Trey Tennyson added 14.
Collin, which had defeated Ranger earlier in the season, held a 36-32 lead at the half.
The Rangers will face 7th-seeded Southwestern Christian at 7 p.m. on March 31. Ranger swept both of their games against SWCC during the regular season.
The winners of the two playoff games will advance to the semifinal round of the conference postseason tournament on Saturday, April 3.