SKC CHASING CHAMPIONSHIPS

by Brandon Hansen & Sports Editor
| March 22, 2012 2:00 PM

RAPID CITY, S.D. — When the SKC Bison and Lady Bison take the court for the 2012 AIHEC National Championship Basketball Tournament in Rapid City, S.D. this week, they’ll be looking to add to a crowded trophy case.

The Bison have won three straight national championships and seven overall. The Lady Bison have won three national titles in the past five seasons.

“It’s a big target on us because of our success,” Lady Bison head coach Juan Perez said. “The game our opponents play against us is always different than when they play other teams.”

What does that mean exactly? Well, the Bison aren’t exactly a Cinderella team.

“We don’t sneak into the AIHEC tournament,” Bison head coach Zack Conko-Camel said. “We get everybody’s best game because they see the reputation of the program and what we bring to these games.”

The SKC basketball program has had tremendous success this decade and has become nationally known. A quick scan of the Bison roster shows that players come from all over the United States, and that’s no coincidence.

However, there will be plenty of teams at the AIHEC tournament standing in the way of both SKC teams.

“It’s the most exciting time of the year,” Camel said. “Our program is built for this time. The tournament gets to be a bit more physical because the referees don’t want to decide the championship and since we have the athletes, it’s to our advantage.”

Last year, the Bison won the championship in dramatic fashion, 103-99, over Northwestern Indian College. Marvin Hudson-Lewis won the tournament MVP award for SKC after he notched 22 points in the final game.

The Lady Bison finished strong and placed second in the tournament, trailing by just two points with less than four minutes to go before falling 90-81 to Turtle Mountain College. Tragedy struck the Bison program when Hudson-Lewis drowned on Aug. 4, 2011 while swimming in the Pactola Reservoir in South Dakota.

“He had talked about how his plans were to come back and defend the title,” Camel said.

Both teams are going to the Pactola Reservoir to honor their teammate. They retired his number at the beginning of the season, gave his jersey to his family and this final stop before the national championship tournament will bring the tragedy full circle.

”It’s very important,” Camel said. “It’s one more chapter for us, it’s still hard to talk about. It’s going to bring more closure.”

SKC players hope to honor their fallen teammate with a run at the national tournament.

“It’s really important that we’re going to honor and respect our former player,” Perez said. “We want to still show support to Marvin’s family. We won’t forget him and we want to make sure that we do this before the tournament so we’re in a good place.”

With the chance of a national championship, this tournament always brings the nerves out in people. Perez said he still gets nervous before the first game even though this will be his ninth year as head coach. However, he said that it quickly dissipates after the start of the game. Camel said that pool play gives teams a chance to get all the jitters out.

“We just want to make sure we execute our gameplan,” Camel said. “We get to work our nerves out because the tournament has several games of pool play before we get into the single elimination bracket. That’s time to get the rust off and produce at a high level.”

The Bison practiced for eight days straight before taking a travel day this Tuesday to head to South Dakota. SKC has spent the downtime since its last regular season game in February making sure they play to their strengths. Camel was impressed with the way his team has been handling practice with intensity and speed out on the court.

“We’ve got to win the rebound battle, we’ve got to keep our assists up and we’ve got to keep our three-pointers up,” Camel said.

Perez said that the Lady Bison maintained intensity in practice leading up to the tournament and are ready to get down to work.

“We’ve been working for this for six months,” Perez said. “That’s all for this weekend. Now it’s time to show everyone what we’ve been working for.”

The Bison have plenty of weapons heading into this tournament. Senior Sonny Eppinette comes into the tournament having been on the past three national championship teams. His versatility as a post player is amazing. He can dominate the middle with his size and grab bag of post moves, but when defenses sink in on him, he can step back and hit the three like he’s the next coming of Reggie Miller. It’s a deadly combo that few defenses have been able to contain.

“It would be a great accomplishment for him to end his career at SKC with a championship,” Camel said.

Another big weapon for SKC is the Browning Bomber, DJ Fish, who’s shown incredible talent this season. Fish is a natural passer and always looks to dish first but is nearly unstoppable when he pulls up to shoot. Scoring 40 points during a game is something Fish has achieved this season because he’s an incredibly accurate shooter and has showed good decision making out on the court.

“They’re going to be the focal point, but we have a lot of guys that can step up,” Camel said.

Pete Aragon has done a good job taking care of the ball at the guard position and DJ Kemmer has been deadly from three-point land. James Bible has also caught fire and looks good going into the national tournament. Camel and his players will face numerous teams with plenty of talent. NWIC is back in the tournament, and Blackfeet Community College poses a challenge.

“BCC has kind of been our nemesis for about four years,” Camel said.

Tohono O’odham Community College from Arizona has also caught Camel’s eye.

“They’ve played close to 30 college games and they came close against Salt Lake Community College, a team that beat us,” Camel said.

The Lady Bison have Chantel Jenkins, who can drive to the basket and drop back to hit long-range shots. She was regularly SKC’s leading scorer during the season. The Lady Bison also got tremendous production out of post Eva Green whose rebounding and post skills will come in handy at AIHEC.

Perez said he likes what he’s seen from Big Arm’s Lisa Bible, who has a good shooting touch from behind the three-point line.

“My expectations for them is to step and do their jobs at the tournament,” Perez said.

Perez added that since pool play has running clocks, his team needs to get out to a strong start and maintain the lead.

“We have to keep the pressure up,” Perez said. “With the running clocks there’s not a lot of time to work yourself back into games if you’re behind.”

Both teams have high expectations going into the season and considering how history has played out, SKC should be well-represented at the AIHEC Tournament again.

“It’s been a good season,” Camel said. “We just want to finish it off right.”