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Team Defeats Eastern, Loses To Snow
The Northwest College women’s basketball team split games over the weekend at the Gillette College tournament. The Trappers fell 72-54 to Snow College on Friday, then recovered for a 62-49 win over Eastern Wyoming on Saturday.
Northwest was 5-5 entering a Wednesday night Region IX contest against Central Wyoming.
“I don’t know what it is about Friday games, but we don’t seem to come ready to play,” said Trapper head coach Janis Beal. “Rebounding is effort. Turnovers are mental effort, and those two stats tell the story against Snow.”
The Trapper women were out-rebounded by a 42-24 margin in their showdown with Snow. Northwest was also guilty of 23 turnovers in the contest.
“You just can’t give the ball away that much if you’re going to get outrebounded the way we did that game,” Beal said. “You’re not going to win many games that way.”
In spite of their struggles, Northwest trailed by just three points, 26-23, at the half. The Trappers were unable to match pace with Snow following the intermission, however, sliding to the 18-point defeat.
Kennedy Allen and Andressa Augusto both had 14 points for Northwest College, which was also outshot 28-13 at the free throw line in the game.
Many of the Trappers’ Friday struggles reversed themselves in Saturday’s game against Eastern Wyoming. Northwest delivered one of its best defensive performances this season in holding Eastern to just 26 percent shooting from the floor, including an icy 3-for-17 from behind the 3-point arc. The Trappers also delivered a 51-37 advantage in the rebounding department.
“We did a much better job of blocking out and going after the basketball,” Beal said of her team’s effort against Eastern Wyoming. “Eastern Wyoming has some size, so we had to work to outrebound them.”
Doing a lot of that work was the Trappers’ Leslie Blackburn, who hauled in 12 rebounds in the contest. Blackburn narrowly missed a double-double, adding eight points in the scoring column.
Allen led the way for Northwest College with a game-high 18 points in the contest. Leslie Thronburg was the only other Trapper in double figures, ending her night with 12 points.
The only black mark for the Trappers in the contest came in the turnover department. Northwest was still guilty of 28 giveaways in the game.
“We have to value the basketball better than we did this weekend,” said Beal. “You see numbers like that and you think the other teams must have been really out there pressuring, full court trapping type stuff, and that wasn’t the case. We have to be smarter with the basketball.”
Northwest hosted Central Wyoming Wednesday in the Region IX opener for both schools. The Trappers head to Sheridan on Saturday. The team also has a road contest at Dawson Community College on Tuesday.
All of those games will count in the Region IX North standings and will count toward seeding in the Region IX tournament at season’s end.
Snow 72, Northwest 54
Minder 1, Augusto 14, Allen 14, Thronburg 8, Blackburn 6, Si. Williams 3, Lund 2, Simpson 6
Northwest 62, E. Wyoming 49
Minder 7, Augusto 5, Allen 18, Thronburg 12, Blackburn 8, Si. Williams 3, Winterholler 3, Lund 2, Simpson 4