By Jim Richards

For the second straight season, the Cougars' men's basketball team will host the four-team NJCAA Region I Division II Men's Basketball Tournament after clinching the ACCAC Division II regular-season title, the first building block on what they hope will be a landmark season.

The tournament will be held on March 4 and 6 at the South Mountain gymnasium. Four teams will be vying to capture the tournament title and the automatic bid to the NJCAA Division II Mens' Basketball Tournament in Danville, Ill. (that begins March 19) that goes with it.

The tournament will feature the top four Division II teams in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference. Currently, the Cougars are 13-4 overall in the ACCAC standings with five games remaining on the schedule.

They've posted a 7-1 mark against ACCAC-II teams, losing only to Pima CC, which is currently in fifth place, one game behind Glendale, Chandler-Gilbert and Phoenix College.

With the regular-season title conquered, head coach Dan Nichols will try to keep his club focused over the remaining five games on the schedule, with games at Mesa and Eastern Arizona --two of the best D-I teams-- coming up.

"We want to finish strong," Nichols said. "We have a lot of rough games coming up. We can't stagger into the tournament. If we lose one, it won't be the end of the world. We're trying to finish as strong as possible. All these teams (remaining) are trying to get into the playoffs, so it's going to be interesting."

It won't likely be as interesting as Wednesday's 119-114 Cougars' win over Cochise in triple overtime. In that game, the Cougars let a 14-point second-half lead slip away only to come back from the dead twice in overtime behind a magnificent performance from Tyrone Kelley.

Kelley hit 26 of 30 free throws, several of them in pressure situations, and finished with a career-high 40 points. Tre Golston added 21 and was one of several Cougars' heroes throughout the 3-hour game.

Nichols also guided his club to last year's regular-season title only to fall to Phoenix College late in the Region I title game to Phoenix College, which went on to the national tournament.

Nichols and most observers of the ACCAC predicted South to become the top seed again with his strong returning class that included Golston, B.J. Dotson, Freddie Franco, Dave Cuen, Roy Prieto, Michael Johnson, Sean Lucky, and Trent Volk.

Kelley had not played for four years after playing his first college season at Eastern Arizona.

"We have the returning guys and the continuity," Nichols said. "But you just never know, though. It's really hard to tell in junior college."

Now we know.