Northwest College

News Archive (2019-20 and older)

Lady Trappers Extend Hoops Season

Northwest Heads To Casper For Region IX Tournament

The Northwest College women’s basketball team beat Western Wyoming Community College on Saturday 103-64 in the Region IX Tournament play-in game, earning a spot in next weekend’s Region IX Tournament at Casper College. 

Western Wyoming Community College (6-25, 4-16) drew first blood, but Northwest College (24-7, 15-4) responded to build up a 14-point lead. The Lady Mustangs, however, started a run of their own with about four minutes remaining in the first quarter. 

“To start the game, I thought we came out really really strong and then it’s like we just stopped doing,” said Lady Trappers head coach Janis Beal. She said the Lady Trappers stopped hitting shots and became hesitant to shoot. 

“[We] kind of let them dictate kind of how the second half of that quarter went which is where they kind of started to climb back into it,” Beal said. 

The Lady Trappers managed to hold onto the lead throughout the remainder of the first quarter with the score 28-21 at its conclusion. But with about eight minutes remaining in the second quarter, Western took a one-point lead, 29-28. 

A couple of minutes later, Northwest took a 33-32 lead. The teams remained within one point of each other until a five-point run by the Lady Trappers in the last two minutes gave them a 43-38 lead going into halftime. 

“The little spark at the end of the second quarter to get us the lead going into half I thought was big,” Beal said.

Throughout the second quarter and during the halftime break, Beal said the coaching staff kept telling the team “don’t panic, we just need to settle down.” 

“I think there’s some of that nerves that comes into it: You’re the higher seed, you came out big and then they’re starting to chip away at it,” she said. “Some of those nerves come into those shots — we didn’t shoot the ball well. Things weren’t falling.” 

The Lady Trappers came out to play in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Mustangs 30-17 to take a 73-56 lead. NWC then started the final quarter on a 17-0 run and held the Lady Mustangs to just nine points the rest of the game. 

Northwest won the game 103-64. 

Beal said the Lady Trappers changed up their defense in the second half, “just to try to get some intensity, some traps just to be a little more aggressive.” 

“Overall, just getting some defensive steals and tips in the second half, which led to some easy buckets, was huge for us,” she said. 

As a team, the Lady Trappers had 30 assists, 16 steals and 13 turnovers. 

Getting 30 assists was “huge,” Beal said. “I was very pleased with how we moved the ball in the second half. Just getting a steal and pitching it ahead in a position where we could score.” 

That contributed to many of the points scored during the 17-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter. 

Beal said she was pleased with the improved effort in the second half. 

The Lady Trappers had six players score in double digits, led by Kira Marlow with 19, followed by Dallas Petties and Alexi Payne with 17 each. Taylor Sayer had 13 points to go along with nine assists, just missing a double-double. Tala Aumua-Tuisavura finished with 11 points and Julynne da Silva Sa had 10. 

Dani McManamen and Payne had five assists apiece, followed by Aumua-Tuisavura and Marlow with three. Charri McArthur and Petties finished with two and da Silva Sa had one. 

The Lady Trappers shot 37.5 percent from the 3-point line, finishing with a total of 12 buckets from the arc. AumuaTuisavura and Payne sank three each and Sayer, da Silva Sa and Charri McArthur finished with two apiece. 

From the field, Northwest shot 48.8 percent and 47.4 percent from the free throw line. Western Wyoming shot 30.3 percent from the field, 38.9 percent from the arc and 77.3 percent from the charity stripe. 

On the boards, each Lady Trapper got at least one rebound as Northwest out-rebounded Western 52-39. 

Marlow led in rebounding with nine (five on defense and four on offense), da Silva Sa was second with eight, Dani McManamen had seven and Payne had six. 

Western Wyoming had 29 turnovers. In the steals category, Marlow led with four, Sayer had three, Payne and McArthur had two each and Aumua-Tuisavura, McManamen, Mattie Creager, Shelby Wardell and Petties each had one. 

For blocked shots, da Silva Sa had five and Payne had two. 

Beal said the Lady Trappers wanted it more. At halftime, she told the team they had 20 minutes “to either extend our season or be done.” 

“I think that showed the heart they had that they aren’t quite ready to be done yet,” she said. 

The Lady Trappers will face off against Trinidad State Junior College at 1 p.m. Thursday at Casper College in the opening round of the Region IX Tournament.