Northwest College

News Archive (2019-20 and older)

Lady Trappers Fall In Regional First Round

The season came to end for the Northwest College women’s basketball team with a loss to Otero Junior College in the first round of the Region IX Tournament.

It was a close game most of the way, but the Lady Trappers came up short in a 63-57 loss at the Gillette College Fieldhouse.

Otero Junior College is out of La Junta, Colo. The Lady Rattlers led the Lady Trappers 35-33 at halftime of the game on March 2. The regional quarterfinals remained close throughout the second half, but NWC couldn’t erase the deficit.

Things were a little different this season with the changeover from two halves to four quarters. This was only done in the women’s college game, although there are rumors of the men resurrecting the old system for next season.

“Going to four quarters instead of halves took some getting used to,” Northwest women’s coach Janis Beal said. “I actually think I prefer halves as it doesn’t break up the game so much.”

They still played the same amount of minutes as in the past with four 10-minute quarters. The original concept behind going to halves was to speed up the game. Changing to quarters added more breaks during the course of a game.

“If you have momentum at the end of the first quarter that momentum can be stopped or taken away simply by the first quarter ending,” Beal added. “It didn’t require the opposing coach to have to call a time-out.

“I think I prefer having an extra time-out and being able to stop the game when I want, instead of the designated stoppage at a quarter break.”

NWC finished the season with an 11-20 overall record.