By BRYAN GRISHAM

CSCC Sports Information Director

COLUMBIA - The regular season is just a distant memory as it is time for the TCCAA/NJCAA version of March Madness to tipoff with the Region VII Conference Tournament on Wednesday at Columbia State.

The Cleveland State Cougars will open tourney play on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. central time as the number eight seed and will take on the ninth seeded Jackson State Generals. The Lady Cougars will get a first round bye as they are the number three seed on the ladies side of the draw and will play the sixth seeded Lady Tigers of Chattanooga State at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The winner of the Cougars and Generals will move on to face the top seeded Columbia State Chargers on Thursday at 6:00 while the winner of the Lady Cougars and Lady Tigers will move into the semifinals on Saturday at 6:00.

The Cougars and the Generals are two very evenly matched teams as they split their two regular season matchups with each team winning by two points on their home court. Cleveland State won an overtime thriller, 74-72 in overtime in November while the Generals took a controversial decision from the Cougars in late January, 45-43.

"It has been a very up and down year for us this season," explained Cougar coach Lee Cigliano. "Hopefully we are peaking at just the right time as we have beat three of the top teams in the conference our last three games. Those three wins gave us a much needed boost of confidence and maybe we can go over to Columbia and accomplish some things this week."

"We have lost a lot of conference games this year, but we have been competitive in almost all of them, had chances to win some of those games and had two or three taken from us," Cigliano continued. "We approach the season in phases and we try to learn and build from each phase. Our guys have shown a lot of resiliency this year and hopefully we can carry this momentum over into the tournament."

The Lady Cougars split their two regular season games with the very athletic Lady Tiger  squad during the regular season, with each team winning in on the other team's home court. But, Lady Cougar coach Dan Lumpkin knows all too well that it will be a tough game and that his team will have to be hitting on all cylinders to move into the semifinals.

"We know that we have to be ready to play against Chattanooga because they are a very good team," stated Lumpkin. "We sat down with the team and talked about the fact that we cannot have any lapses. We have to do what we do best, be consistent and do it for 40 minutes. We will prepare just like we do during the regular season, but the key is that if you lose, your season is over. You have to want to get to that next game and that means performing well, hopefully we can do that on Friday. If we play hard on every tick of the clock I think we will have a good chance to win and move on."

In other first round action, Volunteer State (7) and Dyersburg State (10) will open the tournament on Wednesday at 2:00 on the men's side while the Dyersburg State Lady Eagles (7) and Columbia State (10) and the Motlow State Lady Bucks (8) and the Jackson State Lady Generals (9) will round out opening round play on Wednesday.

The Southwest Tennessee Lady Saluqis (4) and the Roane State Raiderettes (5) along with the top seeded Walters State Lady Senators and the second seeded Volunteer State Lady Pioneers will all see action on Friday in ladies action as they top two seeds in each bracket received byes.

On the men's side, Walters State (4) will take on Roane State (5) on Thursday while the top seeded and host team the Columbia State Chargers along with the second seeded Bucks of Motlow State will see action as well on Thursday.