TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (January 20, 2020) - After a long offseason, the 2021 season will begin for the Salt Lake Community College men's-and-women's basketball programs this weekend.

Both the SLCC basketball programs will be playing games at home as part of the weekend, with the Bruin men's team facing off against Northwest College and Layton Christian Academy's Post-Grad program. The SLCC women's program will play against Northwest College and Arizona Western College.

After both teams qualified for the 2020 NJCAA tournament, but were unable to play, this weekend's season tips off with both teams returning to competition with high hopes. The SLCC men will play at 7:00 p.m. on Friday against Northwest, with a 5:00 p.m. tipoff against Layton Christian on Saturday. All games will be played inside the Lifetime Activities Center.

SLCC coach Kyle Taylor said his team was excited for the opportunity to get back to competition.

"We're excited to be in the official portion of our season," he said. "You can feel a different energy and focus from our players; iit's good to finally be preparing for a game that counts."

The Bruins ended the 2019-20 season with an overall record of 29-4 and 12-0 in Scenic West Athletic Conference play. That strong finish to the season provided continued momentum throughout fall workouts as players returned to campus.

"We had a very productive fall," he said. "I thought the NJCAA did a great job giving us a 60-day window to practice and five dates for scrimmages. We got about 30 practices in, had a two-week pause for COVID in early October and finished up before Thanksgiving. We got eight highly competitive scrimmages in on five dates of competition, which was really good for us to learn about our new team."

The SLCC women's program will play Northwest College at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and Arizona Western at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. SLCC finished the 2019-20 season as the Region 18 champions, clinching a return to the NJCAA tournament after finishing with a record of 22-7 and 9-3 in league play.

Both SLCC Basketball programs are scheduled to open Scenic West Athletic Conference play on February 9.