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Lady Trappers Basketball Opens Conference Play 2-0
The Northwest College Lady Trappers basketball team started the conference portion of their season with a pair of wins.
NWC hosted Western Wyoming Community College on Wednesday, Jan. 10, winning 95-36. Saturday saw the Lady Trappers extend their Region IX record to 2-0 with a 67-58 win over Central Wyoming College.
“This was a great way to start Region IX,” said head coach Janis Beal.
NWC 95, WWCC 36
The Lady Trappers (14-4, 2-0) came out on fire and never let up in the first conference game of the season, outscoring Western Wyoming Community College (2-16, 0-3) by a margin of 23-4 in the first quarter.
“I was very, very pleased with our defensive effort and that created our offense. I think we did a good job with that,” Beal said. “They’ve [WWCC] got some kids that can really shoot the ball extremely well and credit to our girls — defensively they understood that and did what we asked and really defended the three well.”
Going into halftime, the Lady Trappers led 40-14.
“Defensively just the energy and excitement, I felt like that’s what got us going,” Beal said.
In the third quarter, the Lady Trappers led 70-27 and in the final quarter of play, the Lady Mustangs scored only nine points to the Lady Trappers 25 for a final score of 95-36.
“They have kids that can shoot it deep — like deep three,” Beal said. NWC held Western to 0.091 percent shooting from the 3-point line. The Lady Mustangs have been averaging 32.5 percent from the arc for the season.
From the field, Western shot 27.1 percent and 75 percent from the free throw line.
“They just did a great job of understanding the scouting report and what we were asking of them,” Beal said of the Lady Trappers.
NWC shot 34.8 percent from the arc, 45.1 percent from the field and 82.1 percent from the charity stripe.
Each Lady Trapper put points onto the board and five players scored in double digits.
Both Savanna Savage and Tala Aumua-Tuisavura scored 13 points, while Julynne da Silva Sá scored 11. Kira Marlow and Kaylee Brown netted 10 points apiece.
On the boards, Alexi Payne led with seven and Tayla Sayer had six.
The Lady Trappers also had 21 steals and Beal was proud to see the team pick up more assists (16) than turnovers (12). Beal said it was a statistic combination that stood out to her and the coaching staff.
“That’s playing team ball,” Beal said. “Moving the ball, kicking it out. So being able to take care and share the ball as a team, ... that’s very exciting for us as coaches to see.”
NWC 67, CENTRAL WYOMING 58
On Saturday, the Lady Trappers shook off a sluggish start to outlast Central Wyoming (6-12, 0-2) 67-58.
“I feel like we didn’t have the same intensity throughout the whole 40 minutes; I kind of feel like we came out flat,” Beal said. “I don’t know if it was an overlook of we played so well on Wednesday.”
In the first quarter, the Lady Trappers led 15-12 and, at halftime, they led by only four points, 28-24.
“Credit to Central, they battled; they came ready to play. Aggressively, defensively, they were into us and that rattled us and I think the girls — the first half especially — weren’t mentally tough,” Beal said. She said mistakes were being compounded into the next mistake instead of letting it go and moving on.
The scoring remained close in the final two quarters, with the score 46-40 going into the fourth quarter. The Lady Trappers came away with a 67-58 win.
“We got to do a better job defensively,” Beal said.
Marlow and Dallas Petties led the team with 11 points apiece and Payne led the team in rebounds with eight. Lady Rustler Paulani Tarawa scored 25 points, almost half of Central’s total.
The Lady Trappers outrebounded Central 40-25 but had 24 turnovers.
“We got to develop that toughness and competitiveness that, no matter who’s in front of us, we play Trapper basketball the way we want to play and I definitely think we lacked that tonight,” said Beal.
For shooting percentages, NWC shot 26.3 percent from the arc, 36.9 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from the free throw line.
“We’ve got to still be able to compete and play when our outside shot’s not falling,” Beal said of the 3-point percentage. “We got to understand when that’s not working we got to work in, attack the basket and get points a different way.”
With the win, the Lady Trappers now have a 2-0 conference record, are on an eight-game win streak and have an overall record of 14-4.
“It wasn’t a pretty win,” said Beal, but added that a “Region IX win is huge.”
The Lady Trappers went on the road to play Little Big Horn College Wednesday night and on Saturday, they’ll host Miles City Community College at 2 p.m. Both are conference games.