NWC News Desk

NWC women halt losing streak

Pair Of Wins Brings Team Close To .500 

The Northwest College women’s basketball team ended a 15-day winless stretch with back-to back victories on Thursday and Friday. 

The Lady Trappers are now 6-7 this season, and ended their four-game losing streak with a 72-65 victory over the University of Montana- Western junior varsity squad Thursday in Dillon, Mont. NWC then followed that up with a 90-42 blowout of the University of Great Falls JV team in Great Falls, Mont. 

NWC gave itself some momentum heading into a Thursday home game at Cabre Gym, where the Trappers will host Dawson Community College at 5:30 p.m. NWC is 3-0 at home this season. 

“We’re very excited to be off the road, especially with the long trip to Arizona (Nov. 28-29),” NWC head coach Janis Beal said. “It’s exciting to finish up our pre-Christmas schedule with three home games, and hopefully we can build some momentum for the second half of the season.” 

NWC got things going with its hard-fought win against UM-Western. The Trappers led just 31-25 after the first half, and Western continued to battle the visitors over the final 20 minutes of play. 

“It was a close game, Montana Western was a good team,” Beal said. “It was good for us to win a close one and gain some confidence and get going on the right track.” 

Beal said that one of the keys for her team was free throw shooting. Although the Trappers didn’t shoot a great percentage, Beal said that several clutch conversions allowed NWC to fend off the Bulldogs. 

Sophomore Caitlin Clancy led the Trappers with 15 points, while freshmen Hatti Snyder and Kayla Cheney scored 12 and 9 points respectively. 

On Friday, NWC cruised to a 44-16 halftime lead over Great Falls, allowing several of Beal’s reserves to eat up extra minutes. Shelby Nicholson paced the Trappers with 19 points, Whitney Hatch and Chandler Rose drained 11 each, Kealani Sagapolu (eight rebounds) and Dana Bjorhus had nine apiece and Clancy chipped in eight. 

“Friday was one of those games that was good because we did get a lot of playing time for a lot of kids,” Beal said. “We’re deep enough that we can allow those kids a chance to play and get experience. 

“And when we get to region play, even those kids that haven’t played a lot of minutes will have to help us out.” 

The NWC defense also forced 28 UGF turnovers, a positive for Beal’s squad, which tends to find itself on the wrong side of the turnover battle. 

“I was impressed in that game ... we applied a lot more pressure defensively, forced 28 turnovers and generated opportunities for offense from our defense,” Beal said. “[My team] has done a better job with ball protection, but the biggest test is going to be playing against a team that puts more pressure on us and seeing how we do.”

 

Contact

Tim Carpenter
Tim.Carpenter@nwc.edu
Communications/Web & Social Media Specialist
307-754-6009