Your future, our focus
In a tense moment later in the season, Northwest College women’s basketball players can call upon the memory of last Friday’s win over Bismarck State when they were Steel Magnolias.
No matter how the game flowed they didn’t wilt and found the necessary grit to keep coming back.
Although the Lady Trappers are very much a work in progress for this 2016-17 season, the 78-70 triumph over the Mystics at Cabre Gym in the First Bank of Wyoming Shootout will be a game film worth revisiting.
Northwest had every chance to lose this game, every chance to fall to a team that already topped the Trappers once this season, a 94-65 thumping Nov. 4 in North Dakota.
But this time every challenge was deflected.
“We knew coming into this game that we improved a lot since the last game,” said freshman Dani McManamen of Torrington. “We just kept going. It’s really big for our confidence.”
McManamen dealt slickly with an unusual circumstance at game’s start. Bismarck was called for a technical foul for not writing its starting lineup in the official scorebook at least 10 minutes before tip-off. McManamen hit two free throws for a 2-0 Northwest lead before one second came off the clock.
Coach Janis Beal is proud of the depth on the team, but is still figuring which players fit best on the court with which others. She has used several starting fives already.
“I think we are starting to get there,” Beal said.
The score was 21-21 after one quarter, 44-43 Bismarck at halftime, and 62-60 Northwest after three quarters. The game was tied eight times and 12 times the point differential was just one.
Neither team threatened to disappear over the horizon.
The critical moment came after Bismarck nailed a lay-up with 2 minutes, 41 seconds remaining to make the score 73-70 Northwest.
“We couldn’t trade with them there,” Beal said.
More than a minute later, Kira Marlow, a 5-foot-10 freshman from Idaho, hit a low-post follow-up shot for a Trapper 75-70 lead.
Even with the three-pointer – the Mystics’ specialty – that represented two points too many. Bismarck played frantically trying to rescue the game. But the shots didn’t fall and Northwest hit free throws.
McManamen, who sparked the Trappers early and late, made all 10 of her foul shots and finished with 20 points.
“They are really good at making three-pointers,” McManamen said. “Our focus was not to let them. We didn’t.”
Northwest also showed a twin-towers frontcourt that may become a regular feature. Julynne Silva, a 6-4 freshman from Brazil, contributed 13 points and 7 rebounds. Dallas Petties, a 6-0 freshman from Aurora, Colo., added 9 points and 10 rebounds.
“We didn’t give up,” Silva said. “We played hard all the quarters.”
Although giddy about this win, the Trappers struggled for consistency during the week, falling to nationally ranked Salt Lake Community College, 57-43, and Eastern Wyoming, 72-61.
McManamen gathered 18 points and 13 rebounds against Eastern,
going 12-for-12 from the free-throw line. Marlow scored 11 in that game.
No one was in double figures against Salt Lake. Lauren Hinckley’s 9 points were tops.
Still, the Bismarck victory was special.
“It is so satisfying to get a win, especially at home,” Marlow said.
(Lew Freedman can be reached at lew@codyenterprise.com.)