By Jim Hayes
An ice-cold 30 percent shooting night from the field Wednesday night not only left the Volunteer State Community College Pioneer basketball team with an 61-56 home loss to the Southwest Tennessee State Community College Saluqis, but also sealed their conference tournament fate.
The loss left the Pioneers with a 3-12 conference record with just three games to play. They will host third place Dyersburg State Community College in the season’s final home game at Pickel Field house Saturday at 4 p.m. before finishing the season on the road with a 7:30 p.m. game at Columbia State Community College and a 4 p.m. game Saturday at Jackson State Community College.
Winning all three games would leave the Pioneers with a 6-12 conference record. Cleveland State Community College and Roane State Community College sport 6-9 and 6-10 conference records respectively as of Thursday afternoon. If Cleveland State and Roane State lose their remaining games, the Pioneers would be tied with them in the conference and would have to play on the tournament’s first day, March 1, at Cleveland State.